Erica Timmerman
Arts Editor

Until recently, tuberculosis was thought to be a page in the history books. TB has claimed millions of lives since the mid 17th-century, until antibiotics were finally discovered in the 1960s, putting an end to the sanatoriums built especially to house those afflicted with the disease.

Unfortunately TB never left Canada. The Star reported that of the known 1,613 people affected by the disease, a quarter of those are from in or around the GTA. Star reporter, Megan Ogilvie, wrote Ontario is the only province without a centralized system of tuberculosis clinics.

Toronto is one of the preferred destinations of many new immigrants, some of whom may come from countries where TB is still a concern.

Another highly infectious disease, SARS, hit Toronto in 2003 and doctors and nurses were praised for their hasty action in quarantining suspected cases. However, a lapse in transmissions relaxed the protocol for personal protective equipment and subsequently regenerated a whole new breed of SARS patients. Not only did our health care suffer but tourism plummeted, causing devastating economic loss.

The similarity between these diseases is that they both made their way into Canada from abroad. Canadian law requires that immigrants over ten years old receive physical examinations and chest X-rays to screen for active tuberculosis. But the symptoms for this disease (coughing, feeling tired, weight loss, chills and lack of appetite) can often be misdiagnosed.

There needs to be more health-care workers who specialize in diagnosing tuberculosis. Children who are under the age of ten should be tested as well as those with weak immune systems.

Travelers have a duty to protect themselves and other citizens as well. If people are visiting countries where there is risk of disease, they should have a thorough health check done at the border.

For those who fear they may have tuberculosis, or already have it and are living in Toronto, then the few tuberculosis clinics that are available should be centralized. The three clinics that are downtown would be better set around the GTA – Vaughn, Scarborough and Etobicoke – so they may be more accessible.

More should be done to combat a disease the World Health Organization says affects one third of the world's population.

Instead of pretending the problem will just disappear, we need to step up to the plate finally and fight TB once again, hopefully for the last time.