Alaskans failing to make progress toward most health improvements sought by 2030

Yahoo

29-01-2025

A dog in musher Paige Drobny's team, lined up for the March 5, 2022, ceremonial start, wears a jacket urging vaccination. This year is the 100th anniversary of the Serum Run that used sled dog teams to deliver life-saving diphtheria medicine to Nome. The Iditarod race course includes part of the route used by the serum teams, and the Iditarod has frequently called attention to that historic event and the value of childhood vaccinations. Still, fewer than two-thirds of young Alaska children have received their full suite of combined diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccines, state health officials say. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
Midway through the decade, Alaskans have failed to make significant progress toward the health targets in numerous categories, according to an annual tracking report issued by state and tribal officials.
The latest Healthy Alaskans 2030 update, compiled in December, shows a lack of progress in reducing rates of drug- and alcohol-related deaths, continued sedentary behavior among adolescents, failure to improve what are now inadequate rates of prenatal care for pregnant women and well-child care for young children and continued high rates of death from accidental injuries and suicide, among other measures.
The Healthy Alaskans program is a partnership between the Alaska Department of Health and the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. The program sets decade-scale targets for improvements in a wide variety of health metrics, with progress updated in annual status reports.
The latest report shows areas where continued work is needed, as well as areas where there have been successes, said Andrea Fenaughty, a state public health manager and member of the Healthy Alaskans 2030 team. She and other health officials presented the status report findings on Tuesday at the annual Alaska Public Health Association Summit, held in Anchorage.
'Even though we look at the data every year, we're not really expecting that halfway through the decade we would have met all the targets because they're really to be met for 2030,' Fenaughtly said. 'That said, it is important to monitor every year.'
'All of this is useful information for all our partners across the state who are working on all of these health objectives so they can refocus their efforts where they need to,' she added.
Of the 30 statewide Healthy Alaskans 2030 objectives, 20 showed no improvement. There were seven objectives for which 2030 targets had been met, two for which there have been progress and one for which data was missing.
Among the Healthy Alaskans 2030 objectives specific to Indigenous residents, there was no improvement in 14. Targets were met for two, improvement was recorded for eight and there was insufficient data for six.
A notable shortcoming highlighted in the annual status report is a decline in childhood vaccinations for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis. The combined diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis vaccine, commonly known as DTaP, should be administered four times to children before they are 2 years old, according to state and federal medical guidelines.
The Healthy Alaskans 2030 objective is for 90% compliance with that recommendation by the end of the decade. But currently, only about 63% of Alaska children between 2 and 3 years old had received the full course of four vaccine doses, said Eliza Ramsey, an epidemiologist working on a fellowship at the state Department of Health.
The low rate is poignant in 2025.
This year is the 100th anniversary of the deadly diphtheria outbreak in Nome that resulted in the famous delivery of medicine by sled-dog teams. The 1925 Serum Run, which brought medicine from Fairbanks to Nome, uses part of what is now the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race course. This year's 100th anniversary has inspired numerous commemorative events in Nome, Anchorage and elsewhere.
There have been no diphtheria cases in Alaska in the past 25 years, said Ramsey, who made a presentation at the summit about the history of the Nome outbreak and the serum run.
However, Alaska, like much of the country, has faced a big increase in pertussis, also known as whooping cough.
A notable improvement cited in the Healthy Alaskans status report concerns smoking and the use of electronic cigarettes. Alaskans have already met state health officials' 2030 targets for dropping their dependence on those products, according to the status report.
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Christy Knight, manager of the state's Tobacco Prevention and Control Program, summarized tobacco-focused policy actions stretching back to the 1990s. Those included laws raising the age of legal purchase and hiking taxes – both actions aimed at reducing youth access to tobacco products – and a 2018 state law guaranteeing that workplaces and enclosed public places are smoke-free, she said.
A pending legislative effort would impose the first Alaska state tax on e-cigarette projects. The bill, Senate Bill 24, is sponsored by Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak. It is the third time he has introduced such a bill; the Legislature passed his first bill in 2023, but Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed it.
Knight, speaking at the conference, described other tobacco-reduction efforts that concern education and help for users who want to quit, she said. Her program has 'a long list' of partners that help with those projects, she said. She listed Breathe Free Alaska and its regional affiliates, the American Cancer Society, American Heart Association and AARP, among others.
'It's a comprehensive effort to make the change that we're trying to make in reducing tobacco use in our state,' she said.
Another bright spot concerns sugary drinks. Among children three years old and younger, the Health Alaskans 2030 target for reducing consumption of such drinks has already been achieved, the status report said.
The state's Play Every Day campaign includes public messages urging parents to avoid giving their children sugar-laden drinks.
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