TB expert Dr. Anne Fanning receiving top medical award

A physician, who was once forced out of her job with the Alberta government after criticizing health care cuts is receiving one of Canada's top medical honours for her work on infectious disease.

Dr. Anne Fanning is getting the 2014 Frederic Newton Gisborne Starr Award, the Canadian Medical Association's most prestigious prize.

Fanning, 75, was chosen for her life's work preventing tuberculosis.  She is professor emerita in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Alberta.

In 1996, Fanning was the head of Alberta’s tuberculosis program. After publicly criticizing the province’s plans to cut the program, Fanning said that she was fired.

On Wednesday’s Radio Active, Fanning said that political will and government commitment is the key to fighting TB.

“The programs that are working well are in countries where the government has said ‘we’re going to do this’ and puts the resources to it,” she said.

“And you know it’s a tiny drop in the bucket. The cost of curing a case is $13 for six months of treatment.”

Fanning will receive the award on Aug. 20.

Past winners of the same award include Dr. Frederick Banting and Dr. Charles Best, who together discovered insulin.