Major TB screening clinic to launch next month in Nunavut community – Nunatsiaq Online
Approved use of new treatment drug will “change the picture dramatically,” says doctor
January 29, 2018
Territorial and federal agencies plan to launch a major tuberculosis screening clinic in Qikiqtarjuaq next month, in the hope of tackling the infectious disease in the Baffin community of about 600 people.
The clinic comes after the territory suffered one of its worst years for active or latent cases of TB since 1999: 100 cases in 2017, the same number reported in 2010.
The majority of those cases last year were found in Qikiqtarjuaq, where health officials estimate about 10 per cent of the population is currently infected with TB.
It was that, and the tragic death of a Qikiqtarjuaq teen, Ileen Kooneeliusie, who died of a rare form of TB last January, that prompted the government response.
