Health workers find more cases of latent TB in Pangnirtung
Outbreak in hamlet has been ongoing since November 2021
The hamlet of Pangnirtung declared a local state of emergency Saturday due to severe winter weather. (File photo)
Pangnirtung’s tuberculosis outbreak continues to grow.
While the number of active cases has remained unchanged at 39 since January, there has been an uptick in the number of latent TB cases in the community of about 1,500 residents, the Health Department announced Friday.
People with latent cases of tuberculosis are infected with the disease, although they will not show symptoms and are not infectious. The latent infection can, however, develop into an active tuberculosis case.
Both active and latent tuberculosis infections are treatable by medication, according to the Health Department. Treatment can prevent a latent infection from becoming an active one.
Symptoms of tuberculosis include:
- A cough that lasts longer than three weeks;
- Feeling very tired;
- Loss of appetite;
- A fever or night sweats.
Anyone with these symptoms is advised to go to their local health centre as soon as possible for screening.
The Department of Health will be in Pangnirtung this fall to run screening clinics and encourage people in the community to get tested.
Maybe if they listened to the public Health Nurse who tried desperately to raise alarm bells in 2020/ 2021 instead of blacklist her for speaking out…this could have been prevented. Unfortunately the GN is obsessed with not being blamed