TB or not TB

At a recent world TB conference in Berlin, global experts discussed why a preventable, curable disease killed 1.7 million people last year. Some believe new drugs and state-of-the-art diagnostics are the way of the future. Others think that medical leaders from all nations need to start pushing governments to examine the real reason TB still exists: poverty.

"You can put in place effective programs and treat people effectively so they don’t become re-infected," Joseph Amon, an associate professor at Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University and lecturer at Princeton University said.There "isn’t a reason to sort of shrug your shoulders and say, ‘Well, TB just exists’ or ‘TB is inevitable’ because it’s not inevitable."

The overall health of the communities is impeded by overcrowded homes, lack of sanitation and poor nutrition. Dr. Mirtha Del Granado, head of Bolivia’s TB program and regional advisor for TB in the Americas for the Pan American Health Organization said it’s difficult to manage the side effects of TB medication due to lack of adequate food. Even some patients say more priority should be given to obtaining better housing and access to fresh water "In some ways, they say the TB drugs were not what they needed," she said.

Some medical experts and aboriginal leaders say Canada's international image masks the fact some Canadians still live in conditions often described as Third World, with residents of isolated reserves living in overcrowded homes rotten with black mould and with limited access to running water. Last year, a Winnipeg Free Press series revealed some Manitoba communities have some of the highest TB rates in the world -- up to 100 times that of the Canadian average. Aboriginals have shorter life expectancies, lower overall incomes and less education compared to the rest of the Canadian population.
"Canada is seen as a wealthy country," said Chief Wilton Littlechild, a lawyer and advocate from Ermineskin Cree Nation in Alberta. "That perception masks the real situation in indigenous communities. People think all communities are healthy and wealthy, but that’s not true."