Images from an information pamphlet about TB that is being distributed by the government in Nunavut.
The eradication of tuberculosis from aboriginal communities, especially Nunavut, is something Canada can accomplish if it puts its mind to it. It isn't as if we're talking about wiping out AIDs from Africa. Nunavut is a territory of 32,614 people. TB is curable with antibiotics.
Canadians sometimes talk about embarking on bold national projects, but why not begin with achievable regional ones? Let's start with an effort of public health officials drawn from Ottawa, provincial and territorial governments (the Northwest Territories has done a good job of lowering its TB rate), municipalities and the universities to organize and carry out a campaign that would address the persistence of a disease that should be anachronistic in a rich country like Canada.
That wouldn't be necessary if Nunavut were up to the challenge. It isn't, as the figures show. Nunavut has had 98 cases of tuberculosis this year, the most in its 11-year history, and up from a previous high of 58. Its TB rate is 62 times that of the rest of the country. "Within a limited budget, to have enough people to fly to a community and trace the source of an outbreak is a challenge," says Isaac Sobol, the chief medical officer of health.
Canada has an opportunity to make up for its 1950s-era treatment of TB in the North, when health officials brought one in every seven Inuit to southern sanatoria, from which many never returned (few explanations were given about their fate).
Tuberculosis has a stigma attached to it. It is a disease of the poorest of the poor. Some people do not want it known they have TB. Overcoming the stigma to treat sick people is a challenge, but hardly insurmountable.
This is a country whose Health Minister, Leona Aglukkaq, is Inuit, and it would not be out of place for her to make TB eradication a priority. Disappointingly, the Public Health Agency of Canada, the lead agency for TB control in the country, referred a question about why the disease rate is so high to the Nunavut government, whose chief medical health officer calls it a "random variation." Let's stop using wimpy words like TB "control." TB is conquerable, and Ottawa needs to show the leadership and passion that will help conquer it.