Michelle DaCruz
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Mar 22/02) - Tuberculosis awareness comes to town two days early.

Yellowknife Public Health is hosting a TB awareness clinic in the former New Beginnings Hair Salon at Centre Square Mall today from noon to 4 p.m.

- TB rates in the NWT are five to 10 times higher than the rest of Canada. - TB is the world's oldest infectious disease and remains the biggest killer in the world. - Over one third of the aboriginal population in the NWT is infected with TB. - Two billion people worldwide carry the TB germ, and about 200 million will become sick during their lifetime. - Each year about three million people die from TB around the world. - Victims of TB are typically the most vulnerable in society: children, seniors, the poor, homeless and those infected with HIV. - The reality of TB is that a threat to one country should be regarded as a health threat to all countries -- courtesy of Lou Richard, R.N., BSN, Yellowknife public health nurse -

"We will be available to do on the spot skin testing, answer questions, and provide general education about TB," said public health nurse Lou Richard.

Testing for the disease is a two-step process. The first phase involves a skin test, where a protein derivative from the TB bacteria is injected into the skin. If the patient shows any reaction, followup testing is required within 48 to 72 hours.

Richard will instruct people with a reaction to come into the public health clinic on Monday for additional testing.

The good news is there has been a downward trend in the number of TB cases, according to Dr. Andre Corriveau, the territory's chief medical officer of health.

"Last year we had only eight cases, whereas in 2000 there were 10," he said.

Still, compared with the national average, the TB rate in NWT is significantly higher than the national average.

For example, over the past five years the average rate of TB in the territory was 61.7 cases per 100,000 people. This compares with a national average of 6.7 cases -- almost 10 times fewer cases, according to the Northwest Territories epidemiology newsletter.

Corriveau said TB has been a big problem in the North because people infected with the disease during the epidemic years of the 1940s and 1950s were never diagnosed or were not able to get treatment when they were out on the land.

"When people are young and healthy, the organism can remain dormant in their lungs," Corriveau said. "As people age, their immune systems are in a downturn and that is when the disease will become reactivated."

The initial phase of the disease is not very contagious, but as it worsens coughing increases and the disease is spread by the airborne organism, he said.

New strains of TB have emerged that are resistant to the most powerful anti-TB drugs. This multi-drug resistant TB has not been found in any confirmed cases of TB in the NWT between 1999 and 2000.

Even so, the emergence of MDR-TB has become a global threat -- due to the trend in globalization, migration and tourism, according to the Communicable disease department of the World Health Organization in Geneva.