Letter to the Minister of Health
Hon. Patty Hajdu, Minister of Health
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario,
Canada
K1A 0A6
Feb. 16, 2021
Dear Minister Hajdu,
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 update the epidemiologic profile of TB in Canada.
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.
To fulfill the priorities outlined in your supplemental mandate letter, the Ministry of Health needs to focus on the needs of vulnerable communities, which include people affected by TB.
If Canada is to meet global and domestic 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.
To be able to proactively respond to the needs of communities most affected by TB, we need accurate and timely data. The abstract of the last TB in Canada report states that “data are collected annually from the provinces and territories”, however the most recent data Canadians have access to is from 2017.
With this context, we would be most grateful if you could answer the following questions:
Will PHAC, or any other government body, report on TB in Canada between 2018-2021, while also committing to the timely reporting of TB epidemiology in Canada going forward?
Are there any projects under way seeking to quantify or qualify the impact of COVID-19 on people affected by TB and TB programs in Canada?
We kindly urge you, in your capacity as Minister of Health, to ensure that the appropriate actions are taken to report important data in a timely and public manner. 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. 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.
With World TB Day on the horizon (March 24th), we would welcome the opportunity to speak with you for thirty minutes around the week of March 22nd 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
