Newly released figures from the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) paint a bleak picture of health among Canada’s Aboriginal People. According to a report in The Globe and Mail (March 11, 2010) “…the TB rate among status Indians [is] 31 times higher than that of non-aboriginal Canadians.”
TB Rate among Inuit Very High
The Inuit are the most at risk of tuberculosis infection with a rate that is 186 times higher than the non-aboriginal average. This is double what it was just four years ago.
Gail Turner is chair of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami’s National Inuit Committee on Health. She comments that, “Behind the high results, are significant disparities in the health of Inuit and other Canadians and inequity in access to health care. It is unconscionable that these conditions exist in a country that boasts of having one of the lowest TB rates in the world.”
Social Conditions behind High Rates of Illness
Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK) is the national voice for Canada’s Inuit. In a media release (March 10, 2010) the organization relates the history of tuberculosis treatment among the Inuit: “The root causes of these elevated rates lie partly in historically high exposure during TB waves in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s…Many were removed from their communities and sent to urban centres for treatment. Some never returned, creating a legacy of fear among those left behind that endures to this day.”
More recently, housing conditions in many First Nations communities have become atrocious, with whole families living in a single room where mould is often present. Add to this the generally poor health of many Aboriginals who have higher than average rates of HIV infection and diabetes. And, for many Native People proper health care is hundreds of kilometres and a plane ride away.
G8 Summit to Focus on Third World Health
Native leaders have been quick to tie the tuberculosis figures to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s pledge to focus on the health of women and children in developing nations at the upcoming G8 summit in Canada.
Angus Toulouse is the Ontario regional chief for the Assembly of First Nations, who is responsible for health issues. He is quoted in The Globe and Mail as saying that when world leaders arrive, “I think they’ll be interested to see we’ve got Third World conditions here in Canada.”
Aboriginal Living Conditions an Old Problem
One hundred years ago, Dr. Peter Bryce campaigned for better living conditions among Canada’s First Nations. In 1912, he was Chief Medical Officer for the Dept. of Interior and Indian Affairs when he wrote: “It cannot be too strongly recalled that the government and people of Canada now in possession of the fertile heritage of the aborigines of British North America owe to what may fairly be called the remnant of these people the performance of a duty towards them in matters relating to their personal health and happiness, and communal advancement, which no difficulties should prevent them from fully carrying out.”
In a 1996 article in Canadian Bulletin of Medical History, Megan Sproule-Jones writes that Dr. Bryce “…amassed grim statistics on the health conditions and mortality rate of the Native population, documenting that Native Canadians were almost 20 times more likely to die from tuberculosis than non- native.”
Sources
“Crusading for the Forgotten: Dr. Peter Bryce, Public Health, and Prairie Native Residential Schools.” Megan Sproule-Jones, Canadian Bulletin of Medical History, Volume 13: 1996 / p. 199-224
Media release. Patricia D’Souza, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, March 10, 2010.
“Aboriginals in Canada Face ‘Third World’-level Risk of Tuberculosis.” Bill Curry, Globe and Mail, March 11, 2010.
Rupert Taylor - Rupert Taylor is the editor of a magazine that provides background to current events.
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