Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about the increasing concern of a dangerous superbug in the Northwest Territories. It reported in the Globe and Mail, October 13th, on Saturday, that this bug is probably one of the most dangerous superbugs that we can have here in the North. It had quadrupled in the Northwest Territories since 2007. This bug is mostly spread in hospitals, but now they’re starting to find it more in the smaller communities.
I want to ask the Minister of Health what he is doing to help the smaller communities who maybe do not know about this dangerous superbug and how dangerous it could be. What is the department doing to help the smaller communities?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. The department is doing their business of advising the local housing authorities through the chief public health officer. The chief public health officer is discussing the clinical practice guidelines with the authorities on what needs to be done to address this virus, the MRSA. That’s the work we are doing right now. The public health officer is working with the authorities to get the information out to the communities.
Since 2012, this year, there have been 142 cases so far. We’re pretty high, according to the people in southern Canada. It’s been noted that it’s quite dangerous. I want to ask the Minister, again, in regard to people who may show signs or symptoms of having this infectious superbug in them, what type of support or medication is given to these people other than letting them know that there’s an awareness campaign going on. What is it that they need to do to take care of themselves?
Like I indicated, the public health officer will work with the authorities, and recognizing that we will advise the communities on the risks of the disease and what type of factors that create an atmosphere in which this virus can spread. Overcrowding is one of the key situations due to the close contact from individual to individual when you have houses that are overcrowded. In some cases, a lot of washing and so on needs to occur and when you have water delivery in the small communities sometimes you don’t have access to as much water necessary to do all of the cleanliness necessary, like as in doing laundry on a regular basis and so on, because of conservation of the water in the household.
We are working with the authorities who are working with the communities to ensure that municipalities are able to provide enough water. The overcrowding situation is something I think can be resolved over a longer term, but in situations like that, we work with the families.
The Minister hit it right on the head: We have a huge problem in our communities with overcrowding and the housing that we have, the quality of housing that we have and the little amount of water that we can receive during the week because of the amount of funding that goes into support. What is his department doing to work with the Minister of Housing or this government to look at the conditions of the housing, the overcrowding? People are moving into their family’s dwelling. It’s really just an infestation ground to continue with this superbug, and it’s going to be awhile if we’re going to look at the long-term solution.
I want to ask what this government is doing to kill the superbug that’s growing. Is it going to get worse? What is his department doing, working with this government on the housing issue? It’s a real time bomb for our people in our communities.
We do recognize it. The department is monitoring the fact that we’re expecting an increase of 44 percent from this year, once we project to the end of the year over last year. There are definitely things that have to occur, and those things are, again, trying to work with the communities and trying to really pinpoint where the issue is greatest. We know that in the Tlicho Community Services Agency we are working closely with them to address the issue of our high rates of MRSA in that region. Any area where we consider there to be high rates by community, we will work closely with them to try to assist the community in addressing the issue of working in the prevention of the spread of this virus. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This deadly virus, this superbug, in the report in the Globe and Mail, penicillin and similar antibiotics no longer work on MRSA. Overcrowding is one of the contributing factors of this deadly disease. Now we are seeing that modern medicine is no longer going to be effective on getting rid of this superbug that we have in the Northwest Territories. Just hearing the Minister say that they are expecting a 44 percent increase on this, this is alarming. This is deadly. Other than antibiotics or penicillin not being the cure for this, how can we get rid of this? We have overcrowding in our small communities. What solutions can the Minister talk with his department to say, let’s get rid of this bug here?
Mr. Speaker, the Member is correct; the drug-resisting infections cost the community and health system billions of dollars yearly. MRSA is not a nationally reportable infection.
What we are doing is requesting information just from other jurisdictions to see what is happening, like trying to look at the best practices on a national level to see if we could employ the best practices here in the Northwest Territories by seeing how other jurisdictions are handling similar issues pertaining to this virus across the country. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
