Nunavik's tuberculosis outbreaks are a result of decades of colonial neglect, professor says
Nunavik is on track to set another record number of tuberculosis cases, which one scholar says is unacceptable in this day and age.
There have been 56 cases so far this year of tuberculosis reported in the region, according to Quebec's health department.
On Monday, the region's 14 mayors released a letter, calling on the Quebec government to declare a public health emergency over the rates of tuberculosis. The Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services has said the incidence of tuberculosis in the region is 1,000 times higher than among non-Indigenous people born in Canada.
Health Minister Christian Dubé told CBC News he "will continue to follow the recommendations of public health experts on the subject," though he stopped short of committing to a declaration.
Natasha MacDonald, a McGill University professor from Kuujjuaraapik who researches culturally responsive care for tuberculosis in Nunavik, said she doesn't believe Quebec is treating the tuberculosis situation in Nunavik with the same urgency as elsewhere in the province.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What do you make of this call from the mayors to declare a public health emergency over the tuberculosis situation?
It's unfortunate that we are in a time and place where we have to make such calls to action. Under a number of international, national and provincial jurisdictions, including the Viens Commission, the Quebec government has a responsibility to ensure that health care in our communities is adequate and is on par with those of non-Indigenous populations.
Because of the urgent situation that Nunavik is in right now, the mayors have had no choice but to unite together as one voice to demand that the government do its job.
Why do you think we're seeing this upward trajectory in cases of tuberculosis, in 2025?
What's unbelievable is that we are a first world nation in Canada, and we have a third world disease within Canada. It exists in Nunavik in our Inuit communities, and it's the same strain that has been in Nunavik since 1928.
Quebec made efforts with the City of Montreal, not that long ago, to stop the spread of tuberculosis. Cases were found, contact tracing was done, people were isolated and medicated.
In Nunavik, it has been left to grow and we have outbreaks in six of our 14 communities. This is unacceptable, and it should not happen. We are part of Quebec, we are part of Canada.
You've alluded to the damage that tuberculosis has wreaked on families historically, with Inuit being sent south for care. Given that history, what do you believe we, as a society, still don't understand treating tuberculosis in Nunavik?
What's happening in Nunavik is a result of decades of systemic colonial neglect. Inuit are expected to adapt to those systems, rather than the government adapting those systems to meet the needs of Inuit. The way the regional health board has been implanted by the provincial government makes it a very program-centred health-care system and not a person-centred health-care program.
One of the infectious disease nurses said at one point, in all of Nunavik, they ran out of sputum testing kits. So she had to beg and plead from the province of Manitoba to send over 40,000 sputum testing kits. Quebec didn't have any and it wouldn't procure more.
There aren't even X-rays in most of our communities, much less X-ray technicians in those communities. And Inuit feel uncomfortable going to the clinic or hospital because of decades of mistrust in medical care and the systemic and individual racism that exists.
One of the calls to action in the mayors' letter is about Inuit health sovereignty. What does that look like?
For things to change in our communities, Inuit need to be the ones who determine how our programs and systems run, so that they are tailored to the way we think and work. Inuit are being expected to move around the calendars and schedules of health-care workers, and they are workers are told they should not be going house to house for testing. If it were Inuit leading our organizations, we would have a better understanding on how to do more screening.
It's not somebody from Quebec City who should be dictating how much money should be going toward basic equipment, We should be. We're the ones in our communities. We're the ones that know that the X-ray machine is broken in this one town, or that we have a new graduate who's just finished their radiography course who could be hired into a position within their community.
What we are talking about here is structural change. Can you compare what the system looks like now with Nunavik's health organizations, to that ideal vision you've just talked about?
Systemic change would come when Inuit are able to create a new system altogether, through self-determination or self-government. Or if we can appropriate the system and have an Inuk lead who can hire resources, because we know best on how to allocate our resources and where the needs are.
The midwifery program in Nunavik is a perfect example of that. This is a system where Inuit have designed how our mothers want to give birth in a community with support, in an Inuit way, and it is unbelievably successful. This is not rocket science.
We also understand that translators are as key as any doctor or nurse. Right now, you have French-speaking nurses and doctors that come into our community, and English is often the lingua franca because most Inuit in Nunavik still speak Inuktitut. When you're translating, for example, with a term like tuberculosis, you have to be very careful to make the difference between tuberculosis, which is a disease that can kill you, and something like bronchitis. You can't just say it's a lung problem.
I understand that we have to collaborate with the Ministry of Health in Quebec, but at the same time, they have to understand we are not just another region within Quebec. We are distinct and we have needs that have not been met for decades.
It's also an example of systemic racism because Inuit in Nunavik have been ignored, have been left behind, have been left to die for decades, and this is unacceptable. It was unacceptable after the first TB case. It was unacceptable after the first death. It's unacceptable now when our numbers are record high. We have nurses who are burnt out. And if this were anywhere else in Quebec, there would be an outcry and the government would be immediately addressing this, so we are expecting the same.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Prenatal exposure to ‘forever chemicals' may raise blood pressure during teen years: Study
Humans exposed to toxic 'forever chemicals' before birth may exhibit higher blood pressure during their teenage years, a new study has found. This connection was particularly pronounced in boys and in children born to non-Hispanic Black mothers, scientists observed in the study, published Thursday in the Journal of the American Heart Association. While previous research has shown these synthetic compounds may affect a rapidly developing fetus, the new study was able to investigate impacts on blood pressure from early childhood through adolescence. 'This suggests these forever chemicals can have long-lasting and potentially harmful effects that may only become apparent years after birth,' lead author Zeyu Li, a graduate student researcher in public health at Johns Hopkins University, said in a statement. Forever chemicals, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), have been linked to numerous illnesses, such as kidney cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid disease, cardiovascular conditions and preeclampsia — also a blood pressure issue. Notorious for their inability to break down in the environment, PFAS are present in a wide range of household products, including cosmetics, waterproof apparel and nonstick pans, as well as in certain kinds of firefighting foams. To draw their conclusions, the study's authors tracked 1,094 children from a group called the Boston Birth Cohort over a median span of about 12 years. The researchers analyzed more than 13,000 blood pressure readings taken at routine pediatric visits from July 2001 to February 2024, grouping the results into age brackets of 3-5, 6-12 and 13-18. They then calculated age-, sex- and height-specific blood pressure percentiles, while accounting for the mother's health, delivery method, socioeconomic factors and weekly fish consumption, as fish are a known source of PFAS contamination. Among the children whose mothers had higher levels of the chemicals in blood samples collected after delivery, the scientists identified issues with three types of PFAS: PFDeA, PFNA and PFUnA. As levels of these PFAS doubled in the moms, systolic blood pressure — the top number in a reading, or the pressure in the arteries when the heart contracts — were between 1.39 percentile points and 2.78 percentile points higher in the 13- to 18-year-old age group. Under these conditions, diastolic pressure — the bottom number, or the pressure when the heart muscle relaxes between beats — surged 1.22 percentile points to 2.54 percentile points higher among members of this cohort. With the doubling of maternal PFAS blood levels, the risk of elevated blood pressure rose by 6 percent to 8 percent in boys and in children born to non-Hispanic Black mothers, according to the study. Li expressed hope that due to the study's findings, more researchers might be inspired to track such effects in children into adolescence. 'Many past studies stopped at early or mid-childhood, however, our study shows that the health effects of prenatal PFAS exposure may not appear until the teen years,' Li said. Senior author Mingyu Zhang, an assistant professor at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, stressed that reducing prenatal and childhood exposure to PFAS requires policy-level action, as well as product phaseouts and widespread water regulation. 'This is not something individuals can solve on their own,' Zhang added. Justin Zachariah, an associate professor at Baylor College of Medicine who was not involved with the study, explained that PFAS interfere with hormones and disrupt typical adolescent development. While scientists are already aware that boys and Black children are at increased risk of elevated blood pressure, exposure to these compounds may exacerbate that risk, warned Zachariah, who also chaired the American Heart Association's 2024 scientific panel on pediatric cardiology and environmental exposures. 'These chemicals last in our bodies for years, suggesting that perhaps prenatal exposure may have occurred before conception, and these chemicals may cause changes that can carry forward for generations,' Zachariah said. 'Therefore, improvements we make could echo for generations to come,' he added. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
5 hours ago
- The Hill
Prenatal exposure to ‘forever chemicals' may raise blood pressure during teen years: Study
Humans exposed to toxic 'forever chemicals' before birth may exhibit higher blood pressure during their teenage years, a new study has found. This connection was particularly pronounced in boys and in children born to non-Hispanic Black mothers, scientists observed in the study, published on Thursday in the Journal of the American Heart Association. While previous research has shown that these synthetic compounds may affect a rapidly developing fetus, the new study was able to investigate impacts on blood pressure from early childhood through adolescence. 'This suggests these forever chemicals can have long-lasting and potentially harmful effects that may only become apparent years after birth,' lead author Zeyu Li, a graduate student researcher in public health at Johns Hopkins University, said in a statement. Forever chemicals, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), have been linked to numerous illnesses, such as kidney cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid disease, cardiovascular conditions and preeclampsia — also a blood pressure issue. Notorious for their inability to break down in the environment, PFAS are present in a wide range of household products, including cosmetics, waterproof apparel and nonstick pans, as well as in certain kinds of firefighting foams. To draw their conclusions, the study authors tracked 1,094 children from a group called the Boston Birth Cohort over a median span of about 12 years. The researchers analyzed more than 13,000 blood pressure readings taken at routine pediatric visits from July 2001 to February 2024, grouping the results into age brackets of 3-5, 6-12 and 13-18. They then calculated age-, sex- and height-specific blood pressure percentiles, while accounting for the mother's health, delivery method, socioeconomic factors and weekly fish consumption, as fish are a known source of PFAS contamination. Among the children whose mothers had higher levels of the chemicals in blood samples collected after delivery, the scientists identified issues with three types of PFAS: PFDeA, PFNA and PFUnA. As levels of these PFAS doubled in the moms, systolic blood pressure — the top number in a reading, or the pressure in the arteries when the heart contracts — were between 1.39 and 2.78 percentile points higher in the 13 to 18-year-old age group. Under these conditions, diastolic pressure — the bottom number, or the pressure when the heart muscle relaxes between beats — surged 1.22 to 2.54 percentile points higher among members of this cohort. With the doubling of maternal PFAS blood levels, the risk of elevated blood pressure rose by 6 to 8 percent in boys and in children born to non-Hispanic Black mothers, according to the study. Li expressed hope that due to the study's findings, more researchers might be inspired to track such effects in children into adolescence. 'Many past studies stopped at early or mid-childhood, however, our study shows that the health effects of prenatal PFAS exposure may not appear until the teen years,' Li said. Senior author Mingyu Zhang, an assistant professor at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, stressed that reducing prenatal and childhood exposure to PFAS requires policy-level action, as well as product phase-outs and widespread water regulation. 'This is not something individuals can solve on their own,' Zhang added. Justin Zachariah, an associate professor at Baylor College of Medicine who was not involved with the study, explained that PFAS interfere with hormones and disrupt typical adolescent development. While scientists are already aware that boys and Black children are at increased risk of elevated blood pressure, exposure to these compounds may exacerbate that risk, warned Zachariah, who also chaired the American Heart Association's 2024 scientific panel on pediatric cardiology and environmental exposures. 'These chemicals last in our bodies for years, suggesting that perhaps prenatal exposure may have occurred before conception, and these chemicals may cause changes that can carry forward for generations,' Zachariah said. 'Therefore, improvements we make could echo for generations to come,' he added.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
R.I. overdose deaths decline for second year in a row
Publicly-accessible Boxes containing Naloxone, an opioid reversal drug also known by the brand name Narcan, line up outside the East Bay Recovery Center in Warren. (Photo by Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current) Rhode Island saw its lowest number of fatal drug overdoses since 2020, according to health department data presented to the Governor's Overdose Task Force on Wednesday. 'This is a sign of hope,' Gov. Dan McKee said in a statement Wednesday. 'We know there is still much work ahead, but the steps we are taking are saving lives.' This is the second year in a row that overdose deaths have dropped. There were 329 Rhode Islanders who died from overdoses in 2024, representing an 18.6% decrease from 2023, and a 25% drop compared to 2022. That means the state is well on its way to achieving its goal of a 30% reduction for 2030. The goal was set in 2022, the year a total of 436 people died of drug overdoses. The 2024 data demonstrated another longstanding trend now broken: For the first time since 2013, cocaine-related deaths were implicated in 61% of fatal overdoses, surpassing the 57% of deaths associated with fentanyl. All opioid-related overdoses, in fact, fell from 85% the previous year to 69% in 2024. But more than one substance can contribute to an overdose, so distinguishing the role of cocaine or fentanyl in a death is not so neatly accomplished. A large portion of overdoses — 118 in all — involved both substances being used in tandem in 2024. About three in five people who died from cocaine also had fentanyl in their system. The annual overdose data is compiled and interpreted by the Rhode Island Department of Health's (RIDOH) Substance Use Epidemiology Program, which finished reviewing the 2024 results last week, according to Joseph Wendelken, a department spokesperson. The data is largely based on autopsy and toxicology findings from the Office of the State Medical Examiners. Personal medical history also informs the coroners' findings. The data does not include deaths with undetermined causes. 'Though decline is encouraging, this is still an incredible loss in our community,' Heidi Weidele, the health department's lead fatal overdose epidemiologist, told the task force Wednesday during her presentation on the data. The scale of loss did not affect all people equally: 70% of overdose deaths in 2024 were men, a number consistent with recent years. Similarly, people ages 45 to 54 were the largest age-based cohort of overdose deaths, followed by people ages 55 to 64. By race, non-Hispanic white Rhode Islanders comprised the largest share of overdoses at 73%, even though they were also most likely to have a history of substance use treatment. Most of the state's overdoses were concentrated in urban areas, with Woonsocket, Providence and Pawtucket reporting the highest numbers. Though decline is encouraging, this is still an incredible loss in our community. – Heidi Weidele, lead fatal overdose epidemiologist, Rhode Island Department of Health Weidele said the deceased most commonly worked in 'natural resources, construction, maintenance, and service occupations, which is similar to what we've seen in past years,' she told the task force. 'And service occupations would be things like health care support, law enforcement, food preparation, grounds maintenance, and personal care.' Other statistics from the report painted a grim picture of the deceased leading up to final moments: Most never sought substance use treatment, or received medical treatment for a previous overdose. Eight out of 10 died in private, in a home, garage or camper. Most overdosed alone, with no bystander present in 60% of cases. The availability of lethal drugs has also influenced overdose trends over the years. In 2009, prescription drugs accounted for 62% of overdose deaths. By 2020, prescription drugs accounted for only 9% of fatal overdoses, while illicit drugs like fentanyl and cocaine comprised 72% of overdose deaths. In 2024, the state actually saw 34% of deaths attributed to combinations of illicit and prescription drugs combined — the highest percentage since at least 2009. A few uncommon culprits in overdose deaths were still marked as 'substances of concern' by the state health department. These included novel benzodiazepines, tranquilizers which belong to the much broader category of research chemicals — substances derived from or chemically very similar to legal and regulated drugs. In this case, novel benzodiazepines like clonazolam — about two-and-a-half-times stronger than Xanax — accounted for nine fatalities in 2024. Brown University researcher: Street drugs are getting more potent and more mysterious Xylazine, a veterinary anesthetic increasingly being used to cut street-sourced opioids, was another rogue substance that continued to impact overdose data in 2024. It was involved in 37% of opioid-related deaths. 'Every single overdose death is preventable,' Health Department Director Dr. Jerry Larkin said in a statement Wednesday. 'Recovery is within reach for every person living with the disease of addiction.' McKee strengthened the Overdose Task Force — a coalition of more than 150 members divvied up into nine workgroups — in 2022 via an executive order, hoping to ensure a sustained state response to the opioid overdose crisis. Among the initiatives it steers are determining how to dispense opioid settlement funds, naloxone distribution networks, peer outreach, and recovery support and public awareness campaigns. Earlier this year, Rhode Island also opened the nation's first state-regulated harm reduction site at Project Weber/RENEW in south Providence, where people can use drugs and receive medical attention in the event of an overdose. Despite a fierce floor debate in the Rhode Island House of Representatives, legislation to extend the injection site's pilot authorization was extended by the General Assembly and later signed into law by McKee on June 6. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
