Deadly STDs travel South-North

JOHN THOMPSON

Inuit attracted by the bright lights and glamour of southern cities are becoming addicted to drugs, falling prey to pimps and becoming infected with sexually transmitted diseases. And when they return to the North, where unprotected sex is rampant, those diseases could easily spread.

It’s a familiar story for Pitsulula Lyta, who worked as an outreach worker for five years in Ottawa.

“I saw what goes on and I saw the patterns, and I can tell, just observing their faces. They’re angry. They’re the quiet types,” she said during a tearful and impassioned talk at a sexual health conference held by Pauktuutit in Iqaluit last week.

She recognizes these women because she left home for the South herself, at age 17, 23 years ago. Before she became an outreach worker, she described herself as a “party girl,” “junkie,” and “alcoholic” as she struggled to survive on the streets.

With little family support and few Inuit-specific social programs available, she said many Inuit turn to alcohol and drugs to cope with isolation and loneliness.

“There are millions of people down south, but if there aren’t other Inuks, you’re alone,” she said.

Some turn to petty crime like stealing alcohol, then wind up in prison. “It becomes a cycle. It’s really sad,” she said.

Others fall prey to pimps, who Lyta says are “just waiting for fresh-faced, young Inuk women.” Those women could be looking for money, drugs, or just a place to sleep at night.

“A few years later, they just have a sour look on their faces. They just want more drugs,” Lyta said.

Lyta escaped life on the streets, but her best friend who ran away with her 23 years ago wasn’t so lucky. She died last year from Hepatitis C, a disease Lyta says isn’t considered dangerous on the streets.

“Inuit women in the South are dead and dying… and it could be one of us, because life has a very wicked way of turning,” she said.

And this could only be the beginning, she warned, with intravenous drug use on the rise — as well as travel between the North and South.

“Twenty to 30 years down the road, it’s going to be a common problem. It’s going to be like a common cold.”

Lyta said Inuit women in the South need more support — from their families back home, from the Nunavut government that may no longer recognize them as residents, and from southern social services that offer few programs that target Inuit.

The spread of deadly sexually transmitted diseases like HIV and Hepatitis C could be a disaster waiting to happen in Nunavut’s communities unless residents start using condoms, sexual health workers warn.

Community health workers in Nunavut say they’re too overworked to focus on sexual health programs, and in some communities, sex ed isn’t even taught in the schools, according to Geraldine Osbourne, the territory’s associate chief health officer.

“The school may say that’s not appropriate to them,” she said, adding that churches could influence this decision.

That leaves many Nunavummiut without “the tools for talking about sex,” said Aideen Reynolds, Pauktuutit’s manager of sexual health policy and programs.

The known number of HIV infections among Inuit remain low — with only two known cases — but in Nunavut the number of gonorrhea and chlamydia infections dwarf the national averages, along with territory’s number of teen pregnancies.

Recent studies show the biggest increase of HIV infections is among straight aboriginal women, Reynolds said. “They’re the target,” she said, adding no one should consider HIV to be a “gay disease.”

“It’s been a straight disease in the aboriginal community from the onset,” she said. “It’s a growing concern. It’s been a concern for some time. It’s ever increasing.”

Osbourne discussed the territory’s draft health strategy at the conference. The strategy includes recruiting male role models to speak about sex to teens. She also said she hopes to see the number of CHRs increase over the next year.