Researcher calls for Māori-specific strategy to eliminate tuberculosis
Researchers are calling for a Māori-specific strategy to eliminate tuberculosis, citing a review that shows significantly higher infection rates among Māori compared to other groups. The study highlights gaps in contact tracing and a fragmented health system as primary barriers to control.
Why it matters
Addressing health inequities through targeted, culturally safe strategies is essential for public health outcomes and systemic reform.
Researchers say New Zealand needs a Māori-specific strategy to eliminate tuberculosis or TB, after a review found the current approach is failing to adequately control the disease .
The review, published in New Zealand Medical Journal , looked at 17 Māori people diagnosed with pulmonary TB in Waikato between 2018 and 2023.
It found TB rates among Maori were more than five times higher than among New Zealand born Europeans.
Researcher Dr Nina Scott said tuberculosis had continued circulating in Māori communities because New Zealand had never done enough to control it.
She said historical efforts to tackle the disease focused on the non-Māori population.
"The government didn't make a really big effort to control TB for Maori and it still hasn't made enough of an effort to control TB for Maori."
Dr Scott said the current system also had significant gaps in contact tracing, diagnosis and support.
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