Inuit recommendations to address high rates of tuberculosis in Nunavik, Quebec
Canadian Medical Association Journal
Tuberculosis rates for Inuit living in Nunavik, the Inuit lands in northern Quebec, are 1000 times greater than among non-foreign-born Quebeckers, and underresourcing of local health care adds to hardship from the disease, found new research published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.251824.
The study, conducted in partnership with Nunavik Inuit and led by a predominantly Indigenous research team, aimed to assess current Inuit experiences with tuberculosis care and elicit recommendations from Inuit on effective disease eradication tactics. The First Nations and Inuit researchers interviewed 156 Nunavimmiut — Inuit people from Nunavik — of whom 61% were female and 37% were under age 35, as well as 21 non-Inuit health care workers. Importantly, a substantial number of interviews were in Inuktitut.
Inuit expressed strong desires for healthy communities and healthy residents, with importance placed on Inuit control over tuberculosis eradication strategies.
“Inuit are deeply committed to ending tuberculosis and are calling for concrete changes to policies and services, which currently create significant hardship. The study findings have been shared with communities, local political leaders and health organizations. What emerges is a clear call: an urgent response is needed — one that respects community autonomy and realities — in order to end the epidemic,” said Native American Ben Geboe, member of the Yankton Sioux Dakota Nation, first author of the study and postdoctoral researcher with co-senior author Dr. Faiz Ahmad Khan of the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre.
Inadequate resourcing of health care has led to the current program-centred approach that causes hardship for Nunavimmiut who have had to leave their communities for diagnosis, for example. Additional burdens include lack of language-specific care, lack of support for long treatment periods in isolation, potential for police or court intervention, and inadequate information and data sharing on tuberculosis rates. Nunavik health authorities are already implementing changes and policies that better align with Inuit preferences.
The research outlines the Inuit recommendations, called 7 Calls to Action on Tuberculosis:
- Increase Inuit control over services and data
- Provide person-centred care
- Increase local services to minimize displacement
- Use community-wide screening, adapted to local needs
- Train and hire more Inuit health care workers
- Reduce stigma
- Implement Inuit-led cultural safety training for health care workers
“In the face of a rapidly worsening tuberculosis epidemic, the governments of Quebec and Canada must respond urgently by addressing chronic health care underresourcing to enable implementation of a robust and supportive approach to ending this epidemic, as called for by Nunavimmiut,” the authors conclude.
In a related commentary https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.260331, Dr. Pamela Orr, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, writes “When working with Indigenous partners, non-Indigenous researchers have a specific duty to do the work of reconciliation. [The authors] do this through engaging in a mutual relationship with community, bringing awareness to past and present harms in the context of epidemic tuberculosis in Nunavik, and outlining the steps they have taken to try to achieve policy change through their research findings. They move from acknowledgement to action in the work of reconciliation.”
Journal
Canadian Medical Association Journal
Method of Research
Observational study
Subject of Research
People
Article Title
Inuit experiences of and expertise on the 21st-century tuberculosis epidemic in Nunavik, Quebec: a qualitative community-based participatory study
Article Publication Date
6-Apr-2026
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