Native populations experience barriers to health care access such as limited knowledge, stigma, community social isolation, and geographic isolation. As a result, Inuit populations in Canada suffer 300 times higher rates of TB than the Canadian-born non-Indigenous population.
Canada
Immunization is important for recent migrants to overcome health barriers and prevent diseases like tuberculosis
Recent migrants face barriers to accessing health care including language and cultural barriers, limited knowledge, food and housing insecurity, stress, and lack of resources available during prolonged travel. In Canada, though foreign-born populations make up only 22% of the total population, 70% of active tuberculosis cases occurred in this population.
Immunocompromised people are particularly vulnerable to IPD
In a long-term study of Canadian surveillance data researchers found that immunocompromised people were at a 12-fold risk of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) compared to healthy people. In addition, the risk of death from IPD in immunocompromised people was found to be 30-80% higher than healthy individuals who had contracted IPD. 10 years after introduction of PCV7 in Canada, the incidence of IPD due to serotypes included in the vaccine had decreased by 90%.