Jessica Klinkenberg
Northern News Services
Monday, June 4, 2007

IQALUIT - Health officials are testing hundreds of people in Nunavut, NWT and Alberta who may have come in contact with a man diagnosed in March with an infectious case of tuberculosis.

Chief Medical Officer Dr. Andre Corriveau said the man stayed in Yellowknife's Salvation Army homeless shelter during March.

Corriveau was able to confirm that two additional cases of TB positive people have arisen since the testing began.

"There are two so far that were identified."

As to how many more cases may arise, Corriveau said that they would have to wait until the second round of testing.

"I think I'll be able to comment on that when we're done with this second round of testing. By the end of July I should have a better picture."

Corriveau said that one case of TB can have widespread effects if not caught quickly enough.

"The worse situation I recall was back in 1996 we ended up having to treat 32 people around one single case. That would be one of the worse case scenarios."

Corriveau said that the individual was diagnosed with TB in March.

"He was probably infectious for a few months before that."

Corriveau said that they have been following up with contacts over that long range period of time for the original individual. He said the other two who were found to have TB were close enough contacts that they haven't had to extend the testing much wider.

"I haven't seen the final tally; it was a few hundred people that had to be followed," said Corriveau. "It's not just homeless people, they were part of the crowd that had to be followed."

Corriveau revealed that residents in 23 NWT communities may have been in contact with the individual tested as well.

"We define close contact (as being) people that live in the same house, or they share the same breathing air for more than four hours. There's people in the shelters that had to be followed up."

A TB infection can take up to six months to develop and requires nine months of antibiotic treatment to cure.

"If you end up treating 15 or 20 people, that's a lot of work," said Corriveau.

The man with TB is being treated in a hospital in Edmonton.

"They have to be kept in the hospital until they're not infectious anymore," said Corriveau.

The man is not infected with a drug-resistant strain of TB, he said.

Corriveau said that the man with TB had not travelled outside of Yellowknife, but that he had come into contact with people from out of town who have since returned to their communities. For confidentiality reasons, Corriveau would not say which communities.

He said his department made a "judgment call" in not alerting the public, but said he feels it was the right decision.

"There's always a balance between alarming people when there is no reason to do so and not putting a stigma on a population that's already kind of marginalized," said Corriveau.

"At this point, I don't have any concern that people might've have been unduly exposed to something and weren't contacted."

Corriveau said the most of the people health officials need to follow up with are homeless.

"We're confident no one is going to be missed," he said. "Sometimes it may be more difficult to offer treatment to people with no fixed address."