COVID-19 shouldn’t overshadow ongoing fight against TB, Inuit leaders say – CBC

Tuberculosis rate of infection for Inuit roughly 300 times higher than the rest of Canada

Apr 12, 2020

Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Canada’s Inuit were already grappling with a much deadlier respiratory disease: tuberculosis.

The TB rate of infection for Inuit is roughly 300 times higher than for non-Indigenous people in Canada.

That figure has barely changed, despite a pledge the federal government made two years ago to eliminate TB in Inuit Nunangat — the homeland of the Inuit in Canada — by 2030.

Natan Obed, head of the national organization representing Inuit, said he hopes COVID-19 is a wake-up call to the rest of the country.

“The reality that we live in with relation to TB is not unlike the reality of COVID-19 … where you can be out in your community and there could be a silent killer in your midst,” said Obed, who is president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK).

Read More: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/stefanovich-tb-covid19-wakeup-call-1.5510675