Tobacco and drug use among Alaska Native people have been on the decline for many years, but there continue to be challenges to motivate people to quit and remain nonusers. To promote a unified message that celebrates the healthy choices that our people make every day, ANTHC recently launched the “We Are” media campaign, targeting Alaska Native and Native American people aged 11 to 25. The campaign is based on social norms theory, which shows much of people’s behavior is ...

Each November, the American Diabetes Association observes American Diabetes Month as an opportunity to bring attention to the disease and its impact on millions of Americans. Diabetes affects the health of our Alaska Native people at a greater rate than the general population. The ANTHC Diabetes program works to reduce the instances of diabetes and health complications from the disease among Alaska Native people. Diabetes program staff are a multidisciplinary team of diabetes experts who work in partnership with the ...

ANTHC’s programs are constantly collaborating and partnering with local organizations in improving the wellness of Alaskans statewide. Recently, ANTHC Diabetes Program Community Educator and Dietician Luz Smeenk partnered with Camp Fire Alaska’s Rural Program to develop a wellness curriculum for Alaska’s rural youth. Over the last several years, Camp Fire worked to develop a wellness curriculum that is holistic, youth centered, and culturally relevant for Alaska’s rural communities. Through a close partnership, Smeenk and Camp Fire took great strides to ...

This November marks the Alaska Native Health Campus’ 10-year anniversary of becoming a tobacco-free campus. The Alaska Native Health Campus has been 100 percent tobacco free since 2006 and will celebrate this achievement on Nov. 17 in conjunction with the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout. The American Cancer Society began celebrating the one-day Great American Smokeout event in the 1970s primarily as a way to encourage current tobacco users to make a plan to quit, or to go completely ...

As flu season begins, it is important to know the health benefits of getting an annual flu shot versus myths about the vaccine. Myth: I am healthy, so there is no need for me to get a flu vaccine. Fact: It is true that the flu vaccination is routinely recommended for people who have a chronic illness. But anyone – even healthy people – can benefit from being vaccinated. Current guidelines suggest that children ages 6 months to 19 years ...

Since 2013, more effective drug therapies for treating hepatitis C have increased the rate at which our people are completing treatment that leads to a cure for the deadly virus. Joining a family of highly effective direct acting antiviral therapies available at ANMC is a newly licensed drug consisting of sofosbuvir and valpatasvir (Epclusa®, Gilead Sciences, Inc.). This is a fixed-dose combination tablet that covers six hepatitis C virus genotypes and is approved for use in persons with serious liver ...