Letter to the Minister of Indigenous Services
Hon. Marc Miller, Minister of Indigenous Services
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario,
Canada
K1A 0A6
Dear Minister Miller, April 7, 2021
We are reaching out to you today as the steering committee of Stop TB Canada, a network of Canadians committed to ending tuberculosis (TB) at home and abroad. We wish to draw your attention to the urgent need to scale up efforts in the fight to end TB.
As one of the world’s deadliest airborne infectious diseases, TB continues to cause unnecessary suffering in Canada, despite being both preventable and curable. This suffering has been amplified by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Resources that would normally be used to fight the TB epidemic have been diverted to respond to the crisis at hand, making it more difficult for people with TB to access essential health services. Lockdowns have further prevented the timely diagnosis and treatment of TB. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria estimated that in 2020 alone the world could see more than an additional half a million deaths from TB because of disruptions to TB programs caused by the pandemic.
Here at home, progress towards TB elimination has stagnated for over a decade, with Canada’s Indigenous (especially Northern) and immigrant communities bearing a disproportionately high burden of TB. Disease prevalence in Canada's Inuit communities is over 290 times higher than in the non-Indigenous, Canadian-born population.
We would like to acknowledge the statement that you published on World TB Day with the Minister of Health, the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, and the Minister of Northern Affairs, restating your commitment to ending TB. To fulfill the commitments outlined in this letter, the Ministry of Indigenous Services must advocate for a stronger national approach in the fight to end TB. Now that legacy TB elimination targets have been reaffirmed, we expect to see action and would like to hear how your office intends to scale up efforts to end TB amongst Indigenous communities in Canada.
If Canada is to meet its TB elimination goals, it is essential to have access to up-to-date information on TB incidence and mortality rates across different communities. The last Tuberculosis in Canada report was published in 2019, and reported data from 2017, which is insufficient for addressing the contemporary TB situation in Canada, especially in light of the
aforementioned impact of current COVID-19 related disruptions on TB services. Because up-to-date epidemiologic data are a cornerstone of an effective response, we are very concerned that there is a complete lack of a baseline against which to appropriately assess the impact of the current pandemic on TB in Canada.
We kindly urge you, in your capacity as Minister of Indigenous Services, to advocate for improved reporting of important data. Up-to-date TB surveillance in Canada is essential. To directly quote the 2017 TB in Canada report:
“Annual reporting of TB across the country is important to better understand the epidemiology of TB in Canada over time, to inform public health action and to monitor Canada’s progress toward reducing the incidence of TB in Canada, with the ultimate goal of TB elimination.”
Finally, we would like to understand how the government plans to leverage COVID-19 infrastructure and investments to improve the TB response in Canada. We would particularly like to hear more details about how Canada’s response to COVID-19 will be built upon to support Indigenous communities in addressing TB. The July 16, 2020 statement made by the Chief Public Health Officer of Canada reminds us that eliminating TB is a priority for Canada and notes that as we continue our response to COVID-19, we are also moving forward in our
fight against TB. “Many of our tried and true public health measures that prevent and control COVID-19 also stop the spread of TB.” Accordingly, there is no better time than now to accelerate our efforts to eliminate this preventable and curable disease.
Given the disproportionate burden of TB borne by Indigenous communities, we would like to organize a TB briefing session jointly with your office and the office of the Minister of Health, so that we can progress in collaboratively addressing this important concern at the intersection of Indigenous Services and Public Health. With World TB Day just behind us (March 24th), we would also welcome the opportunity to speak with you for thirty minutes about the contents of our letter and how we can work together to understand the current TB situation in Canada, as well as take meaningful, high-impact action to end TB once and for all.
Sincerely,
Stop TB Canada Steering Committee
