March 24th is World TB day. Living in such an advanced country with great healthcare, TB is not generally something we consider a threat to our own health. Am I right? Historically, TB has been an important disease in Canada. Unfortunately it still poses a threat among certain populations in our country, despite the great medical advances that have been made.
If you’ve studied Canadian history, you’ve likely read about the “Sanatorium Age”. At the beginning of the 20th century there was a terrible TB epidemic in Canada that was most devastating to the Aboriginal and especially Inuit communities. The impact was likely greater because their immune systems had never encountered the disease. To deal with this problem, institutions called sanatoriums were opened where patients were kept in isolation and treated. By 1938, there were about 19,000 sanatorium beds across Canada. That’s a lot considering the population at the time was only 11 million. One third of the Inuit were infected with TB in the 1950s, and one in seven were brought to be treated in a sanatorium.
And while sanatoriums were the best thing available at the time, they caused a great many socio-cultural problems among the Inuit. First off, they were brought to the south, usually to Quebec, without being able to speak English or French. They were forced to acclimatize to a completely different way of life, can you imagine the culture shock? Often children were displaced from their families, and all too often those children never returned to the north. Many, many Inuit still don’t know what became of their relatives. I know it has caused an effect that is still very much felt. You can watch a short clip on the topic by the CBC.
The advent of antibiotics allowed the sanatorium age to come to an end, and this is why we don’t see TB as a threat to our own health anymore. That being said, it hasn’t been eradicated by any stretch of the imagination. Despite our great medical system and despite Canada being a leader in tuberculosis treatment, it’s still a health concern among Aboriginals and Inuit. Aboriginals are 6 times more likely than the general population to develop TB, and Inuit are 185 times more likely to develop TB than Canadian-born non-Aboriginals.
Woah. What are some of the factors contributing to this extreme disparity? As previously mentioned, our European immune systems have been dealing with TB for centuries, but this isn’t the case for Aboriginals and Inuit. Unfortunately, higher rates of HIV/AIDS and diabetes among these groups confer additional risk factors. Higher rates of substance abuse also come into play. A higher community housing density also contributes to disease transmission. Remote living and less access to health care contribute to worse morbitity and mortality from TB.
So. There are obstacles to tackle, things to do. It’s complicated, and if you’re Canadian you can appreciate that. But we have the tools to fight TB in this day and age so there’s no excuse not to get cracking, hard. It’s really unacceptable.
I tried not to rely so much on the novels I’ve read on the subject and get some reliable sources to write this post. Check them out for yourself.
Canadian Lung Association press release for World TB Day
Canadian Lung Association history of TB in Canada
Government of Canada First Nations, Inuit and Aboriginal health
PubMed link to a scientific article on specific genotypic of Inuit with respect to TB susceptibility
There is also a movie portraying an Inuk man who requires care in a Sanatorium in Quebec. It looks amazing and I’ve been meaning to see it but haven’t done so yet. I think it would be worth it, just keep in mind it is in French and Inuktituk. It is called Ce Qu’il Faut Pour Vivre.
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kerri
Wheezyrunner
We want more posts!