Nunavik mayors demand action over ‘staggering’ TB crisis
Call for declaration of public health emergency, increase in health-care resources in letter to Quebec health minister
Inuit living in Nunavik face tuberculosis rates 1,000 times those of non-Inuit in the province according to the Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services, the region’s mayors say. They’ve issued a letter to the Quebec health minister demanding action. (File photo by Cedric Gallant)
Nunavik’s 14 mayors have all signed onto a letter calling for a public health emergency to be declared over what they call “an escalating tuberculosis crisis” in the region.
The letter, addressed to Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé, was released by the mayors on Monday. In it, they say 40 cases of TB have been seen in Nunavik so far this year — which is close to half of the 94 total cases recorded in 2024, which itself was the highest total ever reported in the region.
“The numbers are staggering,” the mayors’ letter states, adding that Inuit living in Nunavik face tuberculosis rates 1,000 times higher than non-Indigenous, Canadian-born residents of Quebec according to the Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services.
The letter says seven of Nunavik’s 14 communities have been increasingly affected by tuberculosis since 2022, and six are currently in tuberculosis outbreaks.
The mayors say they are issuing their demand that a state of emergency be declared over “two alarming developments” — what they say is the province’s “intention to considerably reduce infectious disease resources recently announced in Nunavik,” and an unprecedented surge in TB cases.
Saying the state of health-care services in Nunavik is “abhorrent” due to a shortage of qualified staff, lack of resources and health-care worker burnout and high turnover rates, they issued nine calls to action.
They include declaring a public health emergency in Nunavik, deploying resources to the region including equipment and surge staffing, immediately reversing announced budget and resources cuts to the Nunavik health board, and funding Inuit-specific training and education for jobs such as nursing and medical imaging technologists.
The mayors also called on the provincial government to fund infrastructure for improved housing and water supply, and to “end the colonial acts of separating Inuit from their families when flown out to undergo screening or diagnostic testing for TB.”
“During recent TB outbreaks in Montreal, where TB is 70 times less common than Nunavik, the resources and personnel provided swift and comprehensive responses to stop the spread in its tracks,” the mayors’ letter says.
“However, in Nunavik we have been met with silence, neglect and withdrawal of funds.”
Given that ,any Inuit of Nunavik live in hotels and airports due to an incredibe amount of travel, contact is very high. Inuit have lots of feast, not always in most hygiene environments, like eating in large groups on the floor, with people stepping over each other and passing around food. I heard Maggie emudluk on the radio this morning, addressing the issue, but I never heard and concerning talk about education within the communities, only heard pleads for funding from government, which does nothing without addressing the root of it. For past 30 years some communities have never really done much to deal with the TB issue. I’ve seem plane loads of infected person being send to kuujjuaq and Montreal over these years with hardly any real awareness to the impact and it continues to be a major problem in our small communities. Education, good hygiene practices, awareness to all the travel and contact, we be a good start.
If it’s not one germ, it’s the other. TB is but one of the many germs that strives on contact , especially large enclosed quarters. Bed bugs is another, but not as bad as the impact of TB. Large families, and all living in one house contributes also, but , it’s not the reason for the spread. It’s the mobilization in large groups assimilation in meetings, workshops with many different people that are all the same for mobility, been every where in touch with so many people. There’s no peace of mind in Nunavik to enjoy your family life, in your own space. Whether you are a kid, or adult or elder, you are on the plane , hotel, not in your own community, mixing with large groups of, sharing, shaking hands , it’s the breeding ground for disease. I invite everyone m grab a seat, and observe the mess. Next time you go to an airport in Nunavik, or flying to Nunavik from Montreal, just look at the groups of Inuit on the go.
It is super simple to solve, people just need to take their pills.
What would help the people to take their pills?
Any idea?
From Mayo Clinic:
Treatment
If you have a latent TB infection, your healthcare professional may begin treatments. . Most latent TB infections are treated for three or four months.
Active TB disease may be treated for four, six or nine months. Specialists in TB treatment will determine which medicines are best for you.
You will have regular appointments to see if you’re improving and to watch for side effects.
Take all of the medicines
It is important to take every dose as instructed. And you must complete the full course of treatment. This is important for killing the bacteria in your body and preventing new drug-resistant bacteria.
Some healthcare departments have programs that let you take your medicines on your own. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has printable forms you can use to keep track of your daily doses.
Large gatherings are the reason. Take a look around ulivik in Dorval. Must in hundreds of patients sat around, coming and going inside outside, smoking, sharing cigarettes. Any given time there are over 400 patients from Nunavik associated with ulivik, that includes the over flow hotels. Ulivik although getting better in service in recent times, is still an unfriendly atmosphere. It’s more like a train depot, or a cross country bus station, where people are waiting for their rides. The setting is not very homey, it’s very industrious, the setting room. Surrounded by security, or like a daycare centre supervision area, only thing is : these patients are adults, treated like they’re all suspicious of some bad behaviour.
“…Shaking hands” and the mindset… it’s bad. This human behavioral change got locked in place less than 5 years ago. Back when; stay 6 feet away, wash hands with hand sanitizer constantly, and don’t shake hands was pounded out from the TV new 24/7. Remember, before all this when we would go to a new community to visit relatives, or strangers came to your hamlet, everyone, even children, shook hands.
It was the same handshake as a Merry Christmas or Happy New Year hand shake when you met someone inside or outside. Didn’t matter if it was minus 32 and a minus 47 wind chill. Both took their glove off to give a warm bare hand shake.
Read old books written by sailors, explorers, and visitors from the 1800s and early and late 1900. The bare hand shake will be noted.
Ingenious it was. It gives you the invisible to the eye stuff crawling on my hand as you do me. Then our immune systems takes over to analyze each other’s new stuff to keep us staying healthy. Recently reports about always using hand sanitizer may hamper your immune system. Because the crawling stuff is killed off by the hand sanitizer, putting the immune system at a disadvantage to keep you healthy. It has nothing to analyze.
Inuit knew this hundreds of years ago. To-day… men in black erased.
If people got their vitamin D and iodine trace mineral levels up, wouldn’t TB be less?
1) overcrowding as a family dynamic; 2) 10 – 15 people in a small apartment getting drunk and passing liquor or beer bottles to swig off of; 3) 10 to 15 people using the kitchen stove or an electric heater to do knife hits in a cramped apartment; 4) getting stoned and drunk from one apartment to another apartment; 4) going to the co-op store, northern store or post office knowing that you are taking medication to fight the tb disease but placing the entire community in danger; not wearing a surgical mask knowing that you are infected but still roaming around the public buildings; 5) knowing that an adult member of the family is infected with tb but still allowing your child to be going out to public buildings and interacting with other people; 6) communities having sporting events where other 13 nunavik communities are traveling to and spreading this horrible disease; 7) having all participants staying inside a large community center and not wearing surgical masks or surgical gloves; 8) don’t blame the nrbhss and the nursing clinics. Nor the quebec government asking for free handouts once again. Its time that adult Inuit has to start using their god given common sense to help stop the spreading of not only tb but for all the other social struggles within each of the 14 nunavik communities. Stop being treated like a child.