Canadian Integrated Program for Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance (CIPARS)

Use Monitoring

• Human
• Animal

Human Antimicrobial Use

As part of the overall surveillance of antimicrobial resistance, it is important to have a good understanding of the current use of antimicrobials in human medicine. Currently, there is no comprehensive national program for monitoring human antimicrobial use in Canada. CIPARS and the Public Health Agency of Canada has been utilizing Intercontinental Medical Statistics (IMS) Health data to quantify and describe antimicrobial drug consumption in humans.

IMS Canadian Compuscript (CCS) data tracks the number of extended units, the size and the cost of prescriptions dispensed by approximately 2775 Canadian retail pharmacies and extrapolates this data to derive an estimate of prescriptions dispensed by all retail pharmacies (approximately 7723 chain and independent stores in 2006). All drugs in the database are classified and Defined Daily Doses (DDDs) are determined according to the 2005 Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification system. The total amount of active ingredients in grams is calculated from the strength and the number of extended units of each product.

New to 2006 is the IMS Canadian Drugstore and Hospital Purchases Audit (CDH) antimicrobial data. Similar to the CCS data, the CDH data tracks the number of extended units, the size and the cost of prescriptions. The difference between these two data sets is that while CCS tracks dispensed prescriptions by Canadian retail pharmacies, the CDH data tracks purchases by Canadian retail pharmacy outlets and hospitals. Data are collected from a representative sample of 2000 drug stores and 613 hospitals and extrapolates this data to derive an estimate of purchases by all retail pharmacy outlets (7420) and hospitals (857) in 2006. This data will be analysed for the first time and included in the 2006 CIPARS report.

Methodology Overview

Animal Antimicrobial Use

The goal of the animal antimicrobial use component is to quantify and describe antimicrobial use in animals in Canada. The resulting information is intended to inform the development and evaluation of interventions aimed at minimizing inappropriate antimicrobial use, to aid in interpretation of observed antimicrobial resistance trends, and to support research and risk assessment on the impact of antimicrobial use in animals, on antimicrobial resistance and human health.  Our objectives are to estimate antimicrobial consumption by drug class and/or kg of active ingredient using manufacturer data, end-user data provided by CIPARS On-Farm and complementary research projects, and ancillary data collected by CIPARS collaborators.  Refer to Question 12 of the FAQ’s for more information.