Inuit-specific tuberculosis (TB) strategy

ITK has collaborated with a subcommittee of the National Inuit Committee on Health (NICoH), the Inuit Public Health Task Group (IPHTG), to develop the Inuit-specific Tuberculosis (TB) Strategy to increase awareness of the need for more effective approaches to TB prevention, control, and care for Inuit, and to present a path forward for reducing the incidence of TB disease in Inuit Nunangat. [...] The Strategy goes on to outline the current state of TB in Inuit Nunangat and to review some key historical and present-day influences that underlie and perpetuate the current high incidence rates of TB disease. [...] The section concludes with a review of tobacco addiction and other risk factors associated with the development of TB disease that are important to the context of TB in Inuit Nunangat. [...] The core components of the plan included a survey of the whole population by chest x-ray to identify cases, removal of cases from the community to lessen the spread of the disease, and immunization of as much of the rest of the population as feasible with BCG vaccine. [...] The arrows along the bottom of the figure describe the cycle of TB for individual persons: 1) exposure to a contagious case, 2) infection with TB bacteria, 3) eventual development of TB disease, 4) perpetuation of TB transmission in the community, and 5) potential consequences of TB disease including new or additional impairments to income, socioeconomic status, and education level.