TB Could Spread as Result of Economic Crisis, Opinion Piece Says
Although the current global economic situation "might be at the top of everyone's minds," there is "another side to financial hardship" because diseases such as tuberculosis "could spread as a result of the bleak financial state," reporter Gail Johnson writes in an opinion piece in Vancouver's Georgia Straight. Johnson adds that "no corner of the map is immune" from the spread of TB.
According to Johnson, Kevin Elwood, British Columbia's director of TB control, said that although there is a "perception that TB has disappeared" in Canada because it is a low-prevalence country, the disease still affects certain populations in the country. Johnson writes that Elwood has called TB "a disease of the disadvantaged" because it particularly affects low-income people worldwide who live in conditions of "poor nutrition, overcrowding, bad housing and poor access to health care." In addition, Elwood said foreign-born or immigrant populations from areas with high TB burdens are "especially vulnerable" to the disease.
The eradication of TB is becoming "increasingly complicated because of growing numbers of multi-drug resistant and extensively drug-resistant cases," Johnson writes. However, she adds that Elwood has said TB is "a totally curable disease." Johnson writes that although the World Health Organization's Stop TB Strategy aims to reduce TB mortality by 50% by 2015, "international health workers and activists are worried that the world's financial crisis will worsen funding shortages" (Johnson, Georgia Straight, 12/11).
