Health

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and the Tundra Women's Coalition is hosting several events to raise awareness in the YK Delta. Eileen Arnold, TWC Executive Director, met with John Active to discuss some of the events coming up this month. 

The Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corporation is testing patients for Hepatitis B, C, and HIV after partially sterilized dental instruments were used on patients. Out of the 191 patients seen during the nine-day period in question, up to 13 patients might have had contact with the instruments. When YKHC discovered the error, they consulted with the Alaska Section of Epidemiology and the Center for Disease Control. KYUK talked to some of the same people.

The effects of heroin spread beyond the user. Family members and people close to the person on the drug often need treatment as well.

“It can be up to years, sometimes, to heal from the consequences of living with a family member with an addiction," explains Teri Forst, a behavioral health clinician at the Bethel Family Clinic. Forst helps people recovering from addiction. She also helps people who’ve been affected along the way.

Today on Delta Affairs Weekly, we talk with Forst about how to recognize addictive behaviors, how to set boundaries, and how to help both yourself and someone who might be using the drug.

Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corporation President and CEO Dan Winkelman has issued an apology to YKHC customers for the recent incident involving partially sterilized dental instruments. Over a nine-day period from Sept 13 - 21, the dental clinic saw 191 patients and used partially sterilized instruments on up to 13 of them. The health corporation attempted to contact all 191 patients before notifying KYUK. They want the patients to test for Hepatitis B, C, and HIV even though the corporation says the risk of infection is so low that the CDC and State Epidemiology did not recommend testing. YKHC released Winkelman’s letter of apology Thursday night. KYUK talked with him shortly afterwards.

Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corporation’s preventative services program Calricaraq is one of a chosen few to be honored at a national awards ceremony called Honoring Nations. 

The Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corporation is offering blood tests to patients treated at their dental clinic between Sept 13 - 21 after the clinic learned that some instruments were only partially sterilized.

It's expensive to provide water and sewer in rural areas, especially in the Arctic. That's true not only in Alaska, but all around the globe. Providing safe water and affordable waste disposal was at the center of a conference hosted in Anchorage last week by the Arctic Council.

The Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corporation has begun expanding its hospital with an aim towards improving health care in the region. The project is expected to take five years and includes building a new primary care facility, renovating the current hospital, and adding housing for its increased staff.