Taking TB study to nation's capital
Iqaluit tuberculosis study expands to Ottawa
Beth Brown
Northern News Services
Monday, April 10, 2017
OTTAWA
A study into treatment of latent tuberculosis in Canada is expanding thanks to $196,940 in federal funding that comes on the heels of a tuberculosis death.
An Iqaluit-based study on the treatment of latent tuberculosis has received new federal funding. Lead Dr. Gonzalo Alvarez, second from left, is seen in this file photo with Qikiqtani General Hospital lab manager Chad Zentner, then federal health minister Leona Aglukkaq and then Nunavut health minister Keith Peterson. - NNSL file photo |
Fifteen-year-old Ileen Kooneeliusie of Qikiqtarjuaq died in an Ottawa hospital weeks after having sought medical treatment in her home community. It wasn't discovered she was suffering from tuberculosis until the day she died in January.
The Public Health Agency of Canada's $196,940 investment will see an Iqaluit-based study head south, to the nation's capital.
The funding is in addition to $400,000 that funded the initial phase of the study, Taima TB 3HB. Taima translates to stop in Inuktitut.
In 2016, the Taima research team began testing the feasibility of a new latent TB treatment, which has yet to be introduced in Canada.
People with the dormant illness have TB bacteria in their bodies, but show no symptoms and are not contagious.
Around 15 per cent of people who carry latent tuberculosis will break out into
an active case.
"The problem is that we don't know who those 15 per cent are going to be," said Dr. Gonzalo Alvarez, project lead from the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute.
The Iqaluit study monitors the effectiveness of treatment in remote Arctic regions while the parallel Ottawa study focuses on immigrants and refugees in an urban setting.
Of Canadians with an active case of tuberculosis, around 17 per cent are indigenous and 71 per cent are foreign-born.
The infection, which is typically contracted from people with an active case of tuberculosis, is currently treated through a daily antibiotic taken over nine months. Rates of treatment completion are low.
The Taima study is monitoring completion rates and cost effectiveness of a 12 week once-a-week regimen of the medications Isoniazid (INH) and Rifapentine.
Gonzalo said one important thing to note is while the treatment has yet to be approved by Health Canada, it has already been approved by the FDA in the U.S. The study is not a test for the medication itself.
"The ethics and safety of the regimen have already been established in previous studies that have been done around the world," he said.
He said often new treatments are first made available in larger centres. He hopes in his research to make it available as quickly as possible to the most at-risk groups.
"What the Taima TB team is about is getting these new treatments and technologies to the places where they are needed most in Canada and, without a doubt, Nunavut is one of those places."
While it is unknown why some people contract latent TB and others active TB, Alvarez said factors such as smoking and malnutrition increase the risk of acquiring a TB infection.
"Smoking is a really important one because the proportion of people over the age of 15 who smoke in Nunavut hovers anywhere between 60 and 70 per cent."
The Iqaluit portion of the study is in partnership with the Government of Nunavut and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., and is funded in part through the First Nations Inuit Health Branch.
The Taima TB team is still seeking applicants interested in receiving the treatment, though they must reside in Iqaluit. Treatment has recently been made available to children as well as adults.
"One cornerstone of the treatment is the prevention of active TB," said Alvarez.
