TB explodes on northern Manitoba reserves
November 2, 2009 - 5:51pm
It's been more than three decades since the last sanatorium in the province shut its doors and tuberculosis faded in the minds of most Manitobans.
But TB never went away. It is still rampant in First Nation communities in northern Manitoba. It's a medical illness propagated by non-medical factors, tangled in a historical and political web that has long neglected the poverty that helps TB survive.
TB is a barometer for overall health: where there is poverty and suffering, there is TB. Plain and simple, it is a symptom of poverty, a byproduct of overcrowded homes, malnutrition and poor overall health.
That same deadly mix let H1N1 flourish in the north this summer and made TB a scourge on Manitoba reserves for a century.
Shame on the provincial NDP.
Thanks, Unionist and Fidel. How can we make this right?
Thanks, Unionist and Fidel. How can we make this right?
Step#1: Clean the federal Tories and Liberals out of Ottawa as Canada's first lesson in democracy.
Why are First Nations still living in poverty?
Native poverty is a lucrative business
To prevent recognition of its destructive policies, the 'aboriginal industry' viciously attacks its critics
A simple swab is all the testing that is needed and many, many times people are seen at the nursing stations without that test being done.
I am under the impression that the federal government has money to spend on studies of TB, that allows them to say they are doing something, but the reality nothing much is being done. It is not only TB but diabetes that is ravaging those communities and little is done to support good nutrition.
I maintain that our goverment's position is assimilate or die whether by TB, diabetes, suicide or.....
A simple swab is all the testing that is needed and many, many times people are seen at the nursing stations without that test being done.
Canada has pretty much shadowed the second-hand economic policies emanating from the US since the Reagan era. And that country. too, has experienced a comeback of tuberculosis as well as homelessness and amazing levels of poverty. One of the problems they've had in the US in dealing with TB is that it requires that infected people ingest several drug concoctions over a period of a number of months. And it's hard for health authorities to track individuals taking the drugs to combat TB if they have no fixed address. Homeless people tend to forget to take their drugs. One homeless American with TB said he tried taking his TB medications but they were constantly being stolen or misplaced. That's not difficult to understand happening if one has no safe place to call home.
This is what we get for the federal Liberals scrapping Canada's national housing strategy in the 1990's and the corruption in Ottawa with mismanaging a lot more than just advertisement money and old line party entitlements. They began taking Canadians for granted a long time ago.
Thanks for this, Fidel.
http://www2.canada.com/montrealgazette/features/viewpoints/story.html?id...
Canadian Government - at make-work:
http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/tbpc-latb/fa-fi/index-eng.php
http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/tbpc-latb/fa-fi/bcg-eng.php
so the Cons and Libs reduced transfer payments to First Nations communities as they did to provinces. They cut social service funding so that Indigenous peoples have insufficient health care and other funding, on top of the poverty issues stemming from the theft of their land and ongoing criminalization of efforts to demand justice.
At the same time, Cons and Libs continue to support bailouts to bankers, and clauses in trade deals and 'financial reforms' that allow bankers to self-regulate, and expand their crony projects on stolen land through their positions on corporate rail, infrastructure, energy, pharma, oil, nuke, insurance, and other boards.
What I have been told, by a friend who works with TB patients, is that with an early diagnosis the treatment is not so bad but once someone is really sick the treatment is horrible, that because of that there are people with TB who avoid treatment and that this is a big problem because these people are infectious. There are laws that can be used, and have been used, to lock these people up but by the time they are used these folks have already been in contact with many others.
What are the priorities of the World Health Organization? Vaccines; child pneumonia is big.
http://www.gavialliance.org/
so the Cons and Libs reduced transfer payments to First Nations communities as they did to provinces. They cut social service funding so that Indigenous peoples have insufficient health care and other funding, on top of the poverty issues stemming from the theft of their land and ongoing criminalization of efforts to demand justice.
At the same time, Cons and Libs continue to support bailouts to bankers, and clauses in trade deals and 'financial reforms' that allow bankers to self-regulate, and expand their crony projects on stolen land through their positions on corporate rail, infrastructure, energy, pharma, oil, nuke, insurance, and other boards.
Thank you, thanks. I learned much more than I cared to about the truth of what you say here:
http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org/
yep, and they even gave Canwest 60 million....
Thanks for all of this fidel, Tigana, and thanks.
This is the thing most people do not realize about air, and fluid borne diseases.
When I go in for my mandated TB testing, I always show a strong reaction to the testing and have to go for chest xrays, to make sure it is a immune response and not a disease outbreak.
Apparently, I have a significant amount of TB anti-bodies present in my system, which is a very good thing for a health care worker.
However, even though I had Rubella (German measels) badly when young, my body does not keep the anti-bodies around, in sufficient numbers, and I have to have a booster.
But what I really have to protect myself from is Hep C contagens:
Hepatitis C is an infectious disease affecting the liver, caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV).[1] The infection is often asymptomatic, but once established, chronic infection can progress to scarring of the liver (fibrosis), and advanced scarring (cirrhosis) which is generally apparent after many years. In some cases, those with cirrhosis will go on to develop liver failure or other complications of cirrhosis, including liver cancer.[1]
The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is spread by blood-to-blood contact. Most people have few, if any symptoms after the initial infection, yet the virus persists in the liver in about 85% of those infected.
All it takes is 140,000, or so, to infect your body, and that amount fits on the point of needle. Not even visible to the naked eye.
Dollars for TB?
http://www.acdi-cida.gc.ca/acdi-cida/ACDI-CIDA.nsf/eng/NAT-324125922-MX6
http://www.tbsurvivalproject.org/news/290307.html
http://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/8668.html - Institute of Aboriginal People's Health
drift
Remind, let's hope your immune system keeps you well.
Promising research funded by Coors (!) may bring hope for Hep C sufferers:
"a clinical trial of the use of high-dose, intravenous vitamin C in patients with chronic hepatitis C infection".
http://www.healthinnov.org/current-studies.php
end drift
Can we please stay on topic? This thread is not about Hep C, nor is it about debating alternative medicine.
Thanks.
Well okay then, point taken and hope there is equal vigiluence elsewhere too, now back on topic.....
Too bad settler Canadians were only worried about themselves and not FN's on remote Reserves having TB.
Part of that 440 million just wasted on H1N1 vaccine, should/would have gone a long way to protect FN's and help them with getting TB under control and better lving conditions
When the majority of settler Canadians finally stop and realize what it is they are doing, we will not be having reports such as this happen.
Too bad settler Canadians were only worried about themselves and not FN's on remote Reserves having TB.
Part of that 440 million just wasted on H1N1 vaccine, should/would have gone a long way to protect FN's and help them with getting TB under control and better lving conditions
When the majority of settler Canadians finally stop and realize what it is they are doing, we will not be having reports such as this happen.
Applause!!
Can we please stay on topic? This thread is not about Hep C, nor is it about debating alternative medicine.
With respect Michelle, the drift to HepC is to my mind quite appropriate, as it is similarly affecting FN communities in particular, and in fact, killed my brother a couple of years ago, and has affected my other brother and sister.
Can we please stay on topic? This thread is not about Hep C, nor is it about debating alternative medicine.
With respect Michelle, the drift to HepC is to my mind quite appropriate, as it is similarly affecting FN communities in particular, and in fact, killed my brother a couple of years ago, and has affected my other brother and sister.
dam cuzz u too? what I never got is whats the story they provide for HIKING taxes but CUTTING social services wheres that loot going to? Hmmm.....
Nuff said Fucc KKKanada and itz Corrupt ass Gov
RexdalePunjabi, i think there's hiking when there's hope of a more egalitarian economy, but cutting social services just reflects a deteriorating government.
Good observation thanks.....
do you think it also reflects a deteriorating society and movement towards a totalitarian government?
Thanks makwa!
Video: 'No No Keshagesh' by Buffy Sainte-Marie(No No Greedy Guts)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKmAb1gNN74
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKmAb1gNN74