#kivalliq

Beloved Nunavut elder Qapik Attagutsiak died at the age of 103 last week. 

Born on June 11, 1920 in Nunavut's Kivalliq region, Attagutsiak was a traditional midwife who worked tirelessly for better healthcare for Inuit. She was also an expert seamstress and a decorated elder, awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.

Her family announced that she died peacefully and surrounded by family in Ottawa on Dec. 14. 

Clare Kines, who has lived in Arctic Bay for the last 24 years — where Attagutsiak spent her later years — remembered her as warm and loving. 

"She was that sort of person. She always struck me as being genuinely happy," Kines said. [...]

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Nunavut's Health Department declared an outbreak of tuberculosis in Naujaat on Tuesday because of a recent increase in the number of active cases. 

Naujaat is now one of three communities in Nunavut facing a tuberculosis outbreak. A public health advisory from the territory says there are six active cases and 10 latent cases in the community of about 1,000.

The difference between the two is that active tuberculosis is contagious, and latent tuberculosis isn't — but needs to be treated, so that it doesn't become active.

A tuberculosis outbreak was declared in Pond Inlet in March, while Pangnirtung has been battling an outbreak since November 2021. [...]

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