In 2021 alone, an estimated 10.6 million people fell ill with tuberculosis (TB) worldwide, including 3.4 million women and 1.2 million children. Many will not survive this diagnosis due to outdated tools to prevent, diagnose and treat TB that are the result of inadequate funding for research and development.
In Canada, this deadly and infectious disease has a disproportionate effect on newcomers and Indigenous communities; the prevalence of TB is 300 times higher in Inuit than the Canadian-born non-Indigenous population.
The weight of this matter is not lost on Canadian Parliamentarians.
We reached out to several MPs to learn more about the direct impact of TB on their lives, communities, and constituencies – and they opened up:
We look towards Canada to reaffirm its commitment to eliminating TB by investing in the research and development required to improve the tools we have to #EndTB.
We are grateful to MPs Brendan Hanley, Gary Vidal, Lori Idlout, Michael McLeod and Salma Zahid for sharing their stories and championing efforts to eliminate TB once and for all.
Follow along to keep up with Canada’s role in the fight against TB and the upcoming United Nations High-Level Meeting on TB this September here.
