Stephanie McDonald
Northern News Services
Monday, July 23, 2007
IQALUIT - Inuit infants have the highest rate of hospital admissions for lower respiratory tract infections in Canada, according to a study released last week by Dr. Thomas Kovesi of the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario.
Jessica Warford, respiratory therapist at Baffin Regional Hospital, stands next to a ventilator, which people suffering from the final stages of respiratory illness may become dependent on to breathe. - Karen Mackenzie/NNSL photo |
The high rates are attributed to poor ventilation, overcrowding, and indoor smoking.
In a study conducted January-March 2005, Kovesi's research team measured ventilation levels in 49 Baffin Island homes with Inuit children under age five. Information was collected from each family on respiratory infections and the results are troubling.
Twenty-seven of the 49 children studied have had a lower respiratory tract infection, commonly known as bronchiolitis or pneumonia. Twenty-one of the 49 had been admitted to hospitals in Nunavut, and 11 had been flown out of the territory for care.
"In Inuit children, after getting these infections... they're at a fairly high risk of getting permanent scarring of the lungs," Dr. Kovesi said. Life-long lung problems, including chronic coughing, can result.
The high incidence of respiratory infections in Inuit infants is indicative of how poor air flow is in some of Nunavut's homes.
"Houses have been sealed up as best as possible to avoid heat loss," Nunavut Housing Corporation president Peter Scott said.
They have been tightened up, strapped, and reinsulated over the years, ensuring that heat can't get out, but also that air can't get in, he explained.
Kovesi found that 80 per cent of the homes in the study were improperly ventilated. He recommends heat recovery ventilators be installed in Nunavut homes, a machine that circulates fresh air into a house and flows stale air outside. The machines cost $4,000 to 5,000 each.
"They're not cheap, but flying babies to Ottawa is very expensive, so we think there's probably money to be saved by installing these," Kovesi said.
Energy efficient ventilators are currently installed in all new houses built by the Nunavut Housing Corporation, but not in older homes.
When someone carrying a virus sneezes, a cloud of germs forms inside the house, Kovesi said.
"The ventilation is sufficiently low (in many Nunavut homes) that that virus doesn't get cleared," he said.
House dwellers breathe the virus into their lungs. In larger, properly ventilated houses in the South, the virus usually spreads and dissipates without serious effect on humans.
The problem in Nunavut is exacerbated by overcrowding. Kovesi's study was conducted in Cape Dorset, Iglulik, Clyde River, and Pond Inlet, where each house has an average of 6.1 occupants.
"This study really points to the need for building more houses in Nunavut," Kovesi said.
Nunavut Housing Corporation owns just over 4,000 of the approximate 9,000 dwellings in the territory. An additional 3,000 units are needed to put the territory on par with the national rate of occupants per home, Scott said.
"Nunavut as a jurisdiction is suffering from the worst overcrowding of any jurisdiction in Canada," Scott said.
In a 2004 proposal to the federal government, the Nunavut Housing Corporation and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. estimated they would need almost $2 billion over 10 years to address housing issues.
In 2006, Ottawa, under the former Liberal government, provided $200 million through the Nunavut Housing Trust.
"There has not been anything forthcoming from the current government," Scott said.
Iglulik Housing Corporation manager Joanasi Sarpinak can commiserate with the situation across the territory.
"Overcrowding is very, very bad here," Sarpinak said. There are currently more than 50 families on the waiting list for public housing. In the meantime, these community members are living with relatives, parents, or friends - sometimes with five to 12 people sharing one dwelling.
