Taima TB program kicks off this week

Infections of the germs which cause tuberculosis can lead to death in infected people — if they don’t receive a course of antibiotic treatment. Taima TB, a new Iqaluit-based, anti-tuberculosis campaign, starts April 5 in Iqaluit. (FILE IMAGE)

“Get tested before you get sick.”

That’s the motto of the new Taima TB program, which starts April 5 in Iqaluit.

An ambitious combination of public education, social media outreach and door-to-door screening and treatment, Taima TB aims to raise awareness about the illness through town hall meetings and social media like Facebook.

The Taima TB approach was developed by Dr. Gonzalo Alvarez, a lung specialist and researcher at Ottawa Hospital Research Institute who has served as Nunavut’s consulting respirologist for the past six years.

Alvarez came up with the idea after seeing a constant stream of very ill tuberuclosis, or TB, sufferers from Nunavut.

“Once you see something over and over, and you see the numbers continuing to climb, you say to yourself we must do something. We must put our heads together and improve the situation,” he told Nunatsiaq News.

The program aims to improve screening for TB, improve treatment for people with active cases and reduce the number of cases in Nunavut.

Every statistic shows rates for TB in Nunavut are sky-high. For example, the incidence of new TB cases is 60 times higher in Nunavut than in a city like Ottawa, Alvarez noted.

For now, Taima TB will run only in Iqaluit, which suffered about half of the 102 TB cases that Nunavut recorded in 2010.

That’s the highest number of Nunavut cases since 1999.

Taima TB is also focussing on Iqaluit because the program’s combination of social media and door-to-door visits has never been tried before, Alvarez said.

There are no plans to step it up to the rest of the territory unless it works in Iqaluit, he said.

“If it did, that’s the kind of informations that’s used to go forward and expand the program,” Alvarez said.

TB is an infectious disease that usually affects the lungs, although all other organs may be involved.

If untreated, the disease can be fatal.

TB preys on people whose general well-being is already weakened by poor diet, smoking and alcohol abuse. Crowded housing also encourages the spread of the disease.

According to World Health Organization, each person with active TB can infect 10 to 15 people a year on average.

Most people infected with the tuberculosis bacillus, or germ, don’t become ill or even know they are infected because germ can lie dormant in a person’s lungs for many years.

But, without treatment, tuberculosis can eventually kill by gradually eating away at the lungs or, in rare cases, by spreading to other organs.

One way to diagnose TB is by performing a simple skin test to see if a person has developed a hypersensitivity to the TB germ.

Medication can then prevent infected people from developing full-blown symptoms of TB.

Bu there’s still a huge stigma about having TB or being treated, Alvarez said.

He’s hoping that Taima TB, which he described as a “team effort” on the part of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the National Aboriginal Health Organization and the New Brunswick Lung Association, will help people overcome that stigma.

Cathy Towtongie, president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., has urged Inuit to take part in Taima TB and promised NTI’s involvement will ensure the project is culturally appropriate.

As part of the first phase of Taima TB, Iqalummiut,18 years and older, who have had TB or who are close to someone who has had TB, will participate in a focus group.

Anyone with an interest in filmmaking can also join Taima TB’s challenge to learn more about TB by making a YouTube video — prizes include five Flip cameras and $1,000 for the best overall video.

These videos will be posted on YouTube and will be used as educational tools for Taima TB.

Phase Two of the program involves home information sessions with public health nurses who will be accompanied by Inuktitut-speaking TB “champions,” as well as screening and treatment of TB.

On April 28, this phase of Taima TB kicks off with a community event that will include a country feast, introduction of the project to the community, and the opportunity for community members to share their stories about TB.

“Hopefully there will be many lessons learned from this project which can be used in other places,” Alvarez said.

A $800,000-federal grant from Ottawa is paying for the program.

“TB is the disease that… has a profound impact on individuals in our communities,” Leona Aglukkaq, Nunavut’s incumbent MP, said earlier this year when she announced the money for Taima TB. “Our goal here is to stop the spread of TB in Nunavut.”

Anyone interested in being hired as a TB Champion or submitting a video should the Taima TB office at 975-4813. April 8 is deadline for submitting a video.