World TB Day

March 24th of each year has been designated World TB Day. It commemorates the day in 1882 when Dr Robert Koch announced the discovery of the cause of tuberculosis. It is a day to build public awareness regarding a disease that remains epidemic in much of the developing world and that results the death of several million people each year.

The rate of TB for Inuit Nunangat is more than 150 times the rate of Canadian born non-Aboriginal people. This is a rate that is comparable to, and in some cases exceeds, that found in some developing nations. At a time when the national rate of this disease is declining the rate among Inuit has doubled.

Tuberculosis it is a disease of poverty and the reason for the unacceptably high rate of infection in Inuit communities can be traced in very large part to the social determinants of health which include inadequate housing, food insecurity, and poor access to healthcare.

Tuberculosis is an infectious disease that it is spread through the air when infected people cough or sneeze - Inuit homes are the most overcrowded in Canada.

Inuit families are seven times more food insecure than other Canadians. A 2010 study completed by the McGill Centre for Indigenous People's Nutrition and Environment and published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal noted “Seventy per cent of Inuit preschoolers in Nunavut live in homes where there isn't enough food”.

In the vast majority of Inuit communities there is no local access to chest x-ray equipment; late diagnosis further increases the risk of spread.

These are all factors which should concern all Canadians, and until they are addressed tuberculosis will never be eradicated in our communities.

Inuit traveling south to the tuberculosis sanatorium in Hamilton, Ontario - note the identification envelopes Inuit were required to wear around their necks (This undated image was published in issue #70 of Inuktitut Magazine in 1989 with photo credit given to Public Archives Canada)