There is a new threat to First Nations people...

There is a new threat to First Nations people: A new strain of bacterial infection linked to meningitis and pneumonia. Type B Haemophilus influenzae had been eradicated by the 1990s through vaccine programs, but by 2006, Dr. Marina Ulanova of Lakehead University’s Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) in Thunder Bay, Ont., noticed a Type A strain hitting First Nations people hard. Ulanova’s research team is trying to learn more about the strain to create a vaccine before the bacterial infection gets out of control. They are in the process of collecting blood samples from affected communities in northwestern Ontario.