Stage set for superbug supremacy

FIGHTING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC COULD HERALD A RISE IN SUPERBUGS

Copious use of hand sanitizer and disinfectant is crucial in the fight against COVID-19, but it could be setting Canada back in the battle against superbugs.

Microbiologists say antimicrobial resistant organisms, or superbugs, are a pandemic on the same scale as COVID-19, though it will play out on a much longer timeline.

Antimicrobial resistance was directly responsible for 5,400 deaths in 2018, according to a recent report by the Council of Canadian Academies.

If nothing is done, by 2050 there could be as many as 140,000 preventable deaths, and Canada’s health-care costs associated with antimicrobial resistance could grow to $8 billion per year.

That’s why some of the images of the COVID-19 pandemic have been so disturbing for Dr. Lori Burrows, a professor of biochemical science at McMaster University.

“I was a little freaked out by watching tanker trucks full of disinfectant being sprayed all over the street in some countries,” she said. “It seems a little excessive to me.”

Some experts worry even strictly necessary efforts to destroy the novel coronavirus linked to COVID-19 could actually drive some bacteria to become more resistant.

The government was set to release its pan-Canadian action plan to tackle antimicrobial resistance this year.

Health Minister Patty Hajdu was questioned about the plan at the House of Commons health committee in early March, before the COVID-19 pandemic struck Canada full force.

“We’ve been committing to using antimicrobials responsibly,” she told the committee. “As you know, though, right now there is a surge on hand sanitizer, which is not helpful in terms of the work that we’re doing to reduce the use of things that contribute to the growth of antimicrobials.”

Though washing hands with soap or alcohol-based sanitizers has no known effect on superbugs, other types of sanitizers and disinfectants can contribute to bacteria that resist antimicrobials.

The use of drugs during the pandemic could also have an effect, said Dr. Gerry Wright, director of the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research at McMaster University.

“Any time that we’re facing a rise in infections of the kind that we’re seeing with COVID19 ... we run the risk of bacterial infections at the same time,” Wright said.