Tuberculosis: finding a community solution

The Tuberculosis Surveillance Project set out to gain community and health care worker support for and participation in the development and implementation of a tuberculosis control program which would address the high incidence of tuberculosis in Innu and Inuit communities in Labrador. The underlying principle of this project is that a tuberculosis control program must have the support of both the communities and the health care workers if it is to succeed. A three-person tuberculosis steering committee, with representation from the Innu Nation, the Labrador Inuit Association, and the Labrador Health Services Board, supervised initial tuberculosis data collection and analysis and workshop planning. Community Health Representatives, community physicians, and community nurses participated in a workshop to develop a tuberculosis protocol for the region. In addition, community tuberculosis control strategies were developed in workshops in each community in an effort to ensure community and health care worker support for the protocol and tuberculosis control in its broadest sense. This project illustrates how partnerships between communities and health care workers can be achieved. Future tuberculosis incidence rates will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the partnership.