Nunavut TB rates remain high despite community testing – CBC

Jun 11, 2019

Federal government has spent millions of dollars screening residents for the infectious disease

Tuberculosis rates in Nunavut remain high despite the federal government spending millions of dollars on screening clinics in three Nunavut communities.

“Right now the numbers are the same as they were last year,” said Nunavut’s chief medical officer of health Dr. Michael Patterson.

Following an outbreak of the infectious disease in the hamlet of Qikiqtarjuaq in late 2017 and early 2018, Nunavut’s previous chief medical officer of health said TB in the territory had reached epidemic levels. Over the following year, the Nunavut health department, with funding from the federal government, took the unprecedented step of setting up mobile clinics in Qikiqtarjuaq, Whale Cove and Cape Dorset, where officials tested 90 per cent of the residents in each community.

Read More: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/nunavut-tb-rates-remain-high-1.5169300