Mr. Speaker, last week, the WHO released its annual global tuberculosis report. Once again, tuberculosis remains the world's deadliest infectious disease.
TB is an ancient airborne virus that still claims almost two million lives every year.
The Global Health Caucus on HIV/AIDS, TB, and Malaria had the privilege this week to speak with an incredible tuberculosis survivor. We had an eye-opening conversation about the human impact of this global epidemic.
Nandita Venkatesan is here today to watch our democratic proceedings, but cannot hear our discussion, because the medication that was used to treat her tuberculosis has left her permanently deaf. The medication is toxic, but patients often need to take it for up to two years, and in many cases, patients cannot even complete the gruelling treatment.
We want to encourage Canada to continue to take a leading role, and support the development of new and better drugs to treat TB to improve and save the lives of people across the globe.