Do people know that there’s a tuberculosis outbreak in Saskatchewan?
While you were reading about Omicron and vaccine mandates, you missed the rising cases of tuberculosis in Indigenous communities in northern Saskatchewan.
Welcome to the 66th issue of The Supplement, a newsletter that fills in the gaps of your other news intake. This is Sierra, one-third of The Supplement team!
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This week, we’re tackling this question: Do people know that there’s a tuberculosis outbreak in Saskatchewan?
TL;DR: While you were reading about Omicron and vaccine mandates, you may have missed the rising cases of tuberculosis (TB) in Indigenous communities located in northern Saskatchewan. One doctor on the front line of the crisis is calling for it to be considered a national emergency, as hundreds of people are now considered high risk. And learning about the history of the disease in Canada raises more red flags as to what is going down today.
Delving into a quick history of TB in Canada, there isn’t much to show it existed before the arrival of the Europeans. But waves of immigration eventually pushed the disease into Upper and Lower Canada (Ontario and Quebec) in the 1600s and to the West (British Columbia) by the mid-1800s. With little resistance to the disease compared to Europeans, Indigenous populations were at heightened risk.
Eventually, things changed. A mortality rate of 180/100,000 in 1900 fell to less than 1/100,000 by the 1980s. The numbers of cases declined during that time as well. By the 1990s, cases started to stay more consistently low. But even by then, Indigenous populations were still battling outbreaks. In the 1970s, the incidence of tuberculosis among “treaty native” populations was 16 times greater than rates in non-Indigenous populations, excluding the Inuit.
A peer-reviewed report from 1999 details how Indigenous peoples were exposed to TB at different points of history, resulting in different rates of resistance around Canada. The Prairies were exposed much later than the eastern and western parts of the country, lining up with the time the Canadian Pacific Railway was built and the reservation system established. Northern populations were affected even more recently, which would explain why in 2006, the highest rate of cases in Canada was in Nunavut: 155.9/100,000.
So, back to today.
A TB outbreak was declared in Saskatchewan in the fall of 2021. Read: not too long before the rise of Omicron during the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Specifically, numbers were rising among children in Black Lake Denesuline Nation and Fond du Lac Denesuline Nation, both located in most Northern regions of the province.
One of the reporters we’ve recently recommended you follow, Zak Vescera, has been reporting on the outbreak since the beginning. Back in October 2021, Vescera reported that there were 13 confirmed cases and hundreds of people who might be at risk. This month, he reported that TB has now been linked to two deaths.
Nearly 500 people between the two fly-in communities have been identified as high-priority contacts, said Dr. Nnamdi Ndubuka, the Northern Inter-Tribal Health Authority’s medical health officer.
Early symptoms like cough, chest pain, appetite loss and night sweats can be mistaken for other common illnesses, or even COVID-19.
On Feb. 11, Dr. Mahli Brindamour, a pediatrician responding to the outbreak in northern Saskatchewan, said there has been another outbreak in a third community, which has remained unidentified. She said that young children are especially at risk — as of Feb. 17, Ndubuka said 17 of the cases identified to date were children.
“This should be considered a national emergency,” said Dr. Brindamour.
TB has long and commonly been assumed to spread based on social influences such as living conditions and mental stress. But, there has also been a reluctance to generalize about the impact socio-economic issues may have had on the disease.
That being said, the inequities faced by remote communities are hard to ignore in the context of today. A recent comment from Dr. Neeraj Dhar, a research scientist at the University of Saskatchewan, points to overcrowded spaces and a lack of housing as exacerbating primary factors. Poor access to nutrition and fresh foods make northern communities even more vulnerable.
According to the World Health Organization’s 2021 Global TB report, COVID-19 has reversed progress in tackling TB worldwide. Part of the problem is a result of a loss of services and resources for TB, as efforts moved to COVID-19. Another is that people seem to have struggled to find care during lockdowns.
“We are supporting the communities and health authorities with equipment in diagnosis including the use of rapid point of care tests for TB,” said Dr. Tom Wong, Chief Medical Officer of Public Health.
World Tuberculosis day is coming up on March 24 — let’s see where Canada stands in helping the outbreaks by then. Read more about symptoms and treatment at canada.ca.
Here’s someone to follow:
Being a TV reporter in Ottawa this past month hasn’t been easy – the harassment, intimidation, even violence. There are some videos of some pretty disturbing behaviour. There are so many people we could suggest to follow, but I’ll get a start by suggestion Evan Solomon. He was one of those TV personalities on the ground who had to keep it moving — and he did.
Here’s a story to check out:
So maybe you’ve seen it on Netflix, but have you read the original story of the Tinder Swindler? Take a moment to appreciate the journalism behind the popular show.