We’ll eliminate TB from Inuit Nunangat, Jane Philpott promises – Nunatsiaq Online
January 24, 2018
“We’re developing a very clear plan”
This March 24, federal government officials and Inuit leaders will announce a target date for the eradication of a great scourge that for many decades has inflicted death and misery on the people of Inuit Nunangat: tuberculosis.
“We intend to see the elimination of tuberculosis from Inuit Nunangat,” Indigenous Services Minister Jane Philpott said yesterday, near the end of an hour-long session with reporters in Ottawa held to provide an update on her new department’s work.
“Rates of tuberculosis among Inuit are 270 times higher than among the Canadian-born non-Indigenous population. This is appalling that this is a reality,” Philpott said.
She said the government will hold off announcing the TB-elimination target date until March 24 because that is the date set for World Tuberculosis Day this year.
