Health

The Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corporation has pledged to become tobacco-free next year. This means smoking, dipping, and chewing will not be allowed in any YKHC rented or owned buildings, both in Bethel and the villages. 

Within a week and a half, two people in Bethel are dead from what the police are reporting as possible self-inflicted gunshot wounds with no suspected foul play. That language usually translates to suicide.

After a water pipe freeze-up that left the village of Alakanuk without water or sewer service for over two weeks, officials are still trying to understand how this happened, and how to prevent it in the future.  

When the Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corporation discovered partially sterilized dental instruments in its clinic last September, it offered free blood tests to all the patients who could have made contact with the tools. Now the hospital is asking those patients to return for a second blood test, to see if any of those partially sterilized instruments could have transmitted an infectious disease.

There is a reason why it takes two blood tests. 

Alakanuk, and other villages seeking federal sewer and water money, received good news Friday afternoon. 

Charles Williams Jr. of Akiak has been found dead on the Kuskokwim River after going missing Wednesday night.

The state government is gearing up for a major battle against the opioid epidemic sweeping through Alaska.

Andy Jones, the Section Chief for the state Department of Health and Social Services, is heading up a new statewide program to get the drug Naloxone, also known by its commercial name Narcan, into the hands of heroin users, no matter where they live, be it the cities or the bush.