To the Editor,
March 24th is World TB Day. This is important, as TB has now eclipsed HIV and malaria as one of the top 10 causes of death worldwide. A decline in funding has resulted in the TB epidemic spreading, with antibiotic resistant strains flourishing. TB is easily and cheaply treated, but as a disease of the poor, the world for too long has looked the other way.
And this isn’t a developing world problem. TB is endemic among Canada’s Indigenous peoples. Reconciliation for past abuses is supposed to be a priority for our governments, and yet as long as Canada allows TB to flourish in Indigenous communities, we are failing in this responsibility. TB only persists in the face of neglect.
Canadians need the federal government to take on this killer, both at home and abroad.
Nathaniel Poole,
Victoria