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Dr. Gonzalo Alvarez spoke at a community feast hosted by the Taima TB project.

Respirologist Dr. Gonzalo Alvarez suspected that screening for tuberculosis in Iqaluit, Nunavut might work better if the public awareness campaign involved the Inuit culture and community at every stage.

He was right.

Knowing that Nunavut is the only area in Canada where tuberculosis is increasing, Dr. Alvarez, a scientist with the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, partnered with the Government of Nunavut and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. to conduct a study called Taima TB, published last week. (Taima means “stop” in Inuktitut.)

Taima TB acknowledged that Inuit prefer receiving information directly from other Inuit, rather than health-care professionals, and it built upon that tradition. It involved community gatherings, radio shows and a video contest. In addition, community members called TB Champions knocked on more than 600 doors to offer in-home screening and treatment for latent TB infection (a sleeping form of the disease).

During the awareness campaign, which ran from January 2011 to September 2013, the number of people who went to Public Health for testing doubled from an average of 25 people a month to 50. Also, the number of patients who successfully completed treatment for latent TB infection during the study period increased by 33 percent.
“This study shows the effectiveness of taking a strong campaign that combines awareness, testing and treatment directly to the areas of the community hardest hit by this disease,” said Dr. Alvarez, who regularly treats tuberculosis in isolated Arctic communities. “A critical component of this was the level of community involvement. Making these gains would have been impossible without this collaboration.”

Tuberculosis is an infectious disease that attacks the lungs and can lead to death if untreated. It typically causes shortness of breath, coughing, fever and night sweats. It is also curable with the right treatment.

Find out more:

• Summary of the study’s findings.
• Full article: “TAIMA (Stop) TB: The impact of a multifaceted TB awareness and door-to-door campaign in residential areas of high risk for TB in Iqaluit, Nunavut,” published by PLOS ONE on July 17, 2014.
• Taima TB page from Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.
• Taima TB YouTube channel

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