Health officials are working hard to deal with an ongoing tuberculosis outbreak in the city.
Health Unit Medical Officer of Health Dr. Janet DeMille explains while they deal with some cases of TB every year, this situation is difficult because it’s mostly affecting people who are homeless.
“When a case is identified, we always look for other people who may have been infected, and we test them and follow up on them,” DeMille explains. “It’s just much harder in that kind of population that was impacted.”
The Medical Officer of Health adds they have the situation under control but didn’t say how many cases they are following.
She adds the disease is also challenging because not all cases become obvious right away.
“People can get infected with tuberculosis and not have any symptoms, and it will reappear down the road. So we have to maintain a heightened vigilance to find any future cases [who] don’t even know that they might have been infected.”
DeMille acknowledges nurses worked hard in March and April to get a handle on the outbreak.