One in 12 persons globally is living with viral hepatitis B or C. ANTHC’s Liver Disease & Hepatitis Program is recognizing World Hepatitis Day July 28. Please join us and stand with those living with viral hepatitis. Through prevention education, vaccination and treatment, hepatitis B and C can become diseases of the past. The Liver Disease & Hepatitis Program (LDHP) has daily clinics in ANMC’s Internal Medicine Outpatient Clinic. Provider staff includes Drs. Brian McMahon, Youssef Barbour, Stephen Livingston and ...

In the 1970s, Alaska Native children were dying from liver cancer caused by hepatitis B, a virus that can cause chronic liver disease leading to cirrhosis, liver cancer, liver failure and death. The Liver Disease & Hepatitis Program was launched in 1983 in response to this epidemic, with an initial mission to vaccinate Alaska Native people against the hepatitis B virus, preventing chronic infection and development of liver disease. The vaccine program has been very successful, eradicating acute hepatitis B ...

The Community of Koyukuk held a grand opening for their recently constructed clinic on May 29. Attendees included community members and representatives from ANTHC, Tanana Chiefs Conference, and the State of Alaska. During the opening ceremonies, former health aides and other long-time residents expressed their appreciation for the progressive improvements in local health care, culminating in their new facility. The newly opened clinic features several important upgrades from the original facility, with the most significant improvement being a sewer system ...

As tobacco use among Alaska Native people remains stubbornly high, many communities and organizations across the state are using public health policy solutions as an effective means to curb tobacco use. Policy solutions include smoke-free laws, tobacco-free school policies, smoke-free housing policies and tobacco tax increases. Policy solutions are proven public health strategies to reduce tobacco use and eliminate exposure to secondhand smoke. ANTHC is supportive of these efforts and adopted its own tobacco-free workplace policy in 2006. Smoke-free Communities: ...

Alaska has made great strides in reducing tobacco use over the years, but to this day, tobacco is still the number one preventable cause of death and disease in Alaska and across the nation. Approximately 600 Alaskans die every year from direct tobacco use; this is more than deaths from suicide, motor vehicle crashes, chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, homicide, HIV/AIDS and influenza combined. Among Alaska Native people, more than 1 in 3 adults (38 percent) are current smokers and ...