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TORONTO, ONT - Inuit in Canada have a rate of tuberculosis (TB) 90 times higher than the national average.

"The current rate of TB among Inuit in Canada is totally unacceptable," said Gail Turner, the director of health with Nunatsiavut government. "It's the worst ratio for any aboriginal group in the world."

Approximately 100 delegates from more than 60 countries met in Toronto, Ont, from Nov. 12 to 14 to address the high rates of TB among the world's aboriginal populations and to look for solutions to the problem.

"Coming out of this conference is the realization that the solutions are not going to be medical, they are going to be social," said Turner, who addressed the conference Thursday.

She said TB rates tend to be higher in aboriginal populations due to the social conditions in some of the more remote communities.

Turner cited the limited access to medical health resources, along with inadequate housing and high rates of unemployment as factors.

"TB is a microscope of which we should look at society," she said. "For each case or each outbreak, if you look behind it, what you will see is the real reasons we still have TB."

Cheryl Case, communicable disease specialist with the Department of Health and Social Services, said the potentially fatal disease is fairly prevalent in the NWT.

Case said this is due to the way it spreads - through the air.

"It can float around in the air for quite a while," she said.

Factors that increase the likelihood of spreading the disease are the time and airspace shared with the carrier, which could explain why tuberculosis is commonly associated with poverty or poor living conditions.

"TB is a disease of the marginalized population," said Case.

"In other words, it comes down to persons who don't have optimum nutrition, maybe living in overcrowded housing," she said.

To date, there have been 13 reported cases of tuberculosis in the NWT this year.

Case said, on average, the NWT has about 10 cases per year.

Case said, however, last year's outbreak at the Salvation Army in Yellowknife is a contributing factor to this year's higher-than-normal cases.

Four communities in the NWT, including Yellowknife, have reported tuberculosis this year.

Case said the NWT has a centralized tuberculosis program that is getting stronger every year.

"We have people working on the front-line all over the NWT," she said.

The department is working to keep health care workers educated and trained on the common signs of tuberculosis - including a cough that lasts for more than two weeks, feelings of fatigue, night sweats and chest pains. They are also ensuring healthcare workers know the common control measures.

"For every case identified as having TB, we ensure they take all their medication," she said.

Case said tuberculosis is treatable, especially in its early stage.

"It is a curable disease but we know if people are not diagnosed early enough and the bacteria starts to take over their lungs and other parts of their bodies, then yes, they are susceptible to death," she said.

Turner said aboriginal people have to be involved in creating solutions to problems affecting their communities.

The global Stop TB initiative hopes to decrease incidents of tuberculosis among aboriginal people by 50 per cent in 2015 from 1990 levels.