Fatal borealpox in an immunosuppressed patient treated with antivirals and vaccinia immunoglobulin - Alaska, 2023.

Background: Borealpox virus (BRPV, formerly known as Alaskapox virus) is a zoonotic member of the Orthopoxvirus genus first identified in a person in 2015. In the six patients with infection previously observed BRPV involved mild, self-limiting illness. We report the first fatal BRPV infection in an immunosuppressed patient.

Using Geographic Disaggregation to Compare Tuberculosis Epidemiology Among American Indian and Alaska Native Persons-USA, 2010-2020.

Background: American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) populations are frequently associated with the highest rates of tuberculosis (TB) disease of any racial/ethnic group in the USA. We systematically investigated variation in patterns and potential drivers of TB epidemiology among geographically distinct AIAN subgroups.

Methods: Using data reported to the National Tuberculosis Surveillance System during 2010-2020, we applied a geographic method of data disaggregation to compare annual TB incidence and the frequency of TB patient characteristics among AIAN persons in Alaska with AIAN persons in other states.

Work-related injuries in the Alaska logging industry, 1991-2014.

Background: Although loggers in Alaska are at high risk for occupational injury, no comprehensive review of such injuries has been performed since the mid-1990s. We investigated work-related injuries in the Alaska logging industry during 1991-2014.

Methods: Using data from the Alaska Trauma Registry and the Alaska Occupational Injury Surveillance System, we described fatal and nonfatal injuries by factors including worker sex and age, timing and geographic location of injuries, and four injury characteristics.

Novel Orthopoxvirus Infection in an Alaska Resident.

Background.: Human infection by orthopoxviruses is being reported with increasing frequency, attributed in part to the cessation of smallpox vaccination and concomitant waning of population-level immunity. In July 2015, a female resident of interior Alaska presented to an urgent care clinic with a dermal lesion consistent with poxvirus infection.

Increase in Adverse Reactions Associated with Use of Synthetic Cannabinoids - Anchorage, Alaska, 2015-2016.

In July 2015, personnel in the Alaska Division of Public Health's Section of Epidemiology became aware of an increase in the number of patients being treated in Anchorage hospital emergency departments for adverse reactions associated with use of synthetic cannabinoids (SCs). SCs are a chemically diverse class of designer drugs that bind to the same cannabinoid receptors as tetrahydrocannabinol, the main psychoactive component of cannabis. A public health investigation was initiated to describe clinical outcomes, characterize the outbreak, and identify SC chemicals circulating in Anchorage.

A Case-Study of Implementation of Improved Strategies for Prevention of Laboratory-acquired Brucellosis.

Background: In 2012, the Alaska Section of Epidemiology investigated personnel potentially exposed to a Brucella suis isolate as it transited through three laboratories.

Methods: We summarize the first implementation of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2013 revised recommendations for monitoring such exposures: (1) risk classification; (2) antimicrobial postexposure prophylaxis; (3) serologic monitoring; and (4) symptom surveillance.

Results: Over 30 people were assessed for exposure and subsequently monitored for development of illness.

Elevated Blood Lead Levels Among Fire Assay Workers and Their Children in Alaska, 2010-2011.

In October 2010, an employee at Facility A in Alaska that performs fire assay analysis, an industrial technique that uses lead-containing flux to obtain metals from pulverized rocks, was reported to the Alaska Section of Epidemiology (SOE) with an elevated blood lead level (BLL) ≥10 micrograms per deciliter (μg/dL). The SOE initiated an investigation; investigators interviewed employees, offered blood lead screening to employees and their families, and observed a visit to the industrial facility by the Alaska Occupational Safety and Health Section (AKOSH). Among the 15 employees with known work responsibilities, 12 had an elevated BLL at least once from October 2010 through February 2011.

Tradition and transition: parasitic zoonoses of people and animals in Alaska, northern Canada, and Greenland.

Zoonotic parasites are important causes of endemic and emerging human disease in northern North America and Greenland (the North), where prevalence of some parasites is higher than in the general North American population. The North today is in transition, facing increased resource extraction, globalisation of trade and travel, and rapid and accelerating environmental change. This comprehensive review addresses the diversity, distribution, ecology, epidemiology, and significance of nine zoonotic parasites in animal and human populations in the North.

2009 Pandemic influenza A H1N1 in Alaska: temporal and geographic characteristics of spread and increased risk of hospitalization among Alaska Native and Asian/Pacific Islander people.

Alaska Native people have suffered disproportionately from previous influenza pandemics. We evaluated 3 separate syndromic data sources to determine temporal and geographic patterns of spread of 2009 pandemic influenza A H1N1 (pH1N1) in Alaska, and reviewed records from persons hospitalized with pH1N1 disease in 3 areas in Alaska to characterize clinical and epidemiologic features of disease in Alaskans. A wave of pH1N1 disease swept through Alaska beginning in most areas in August or early September.

Endemic foodborne botulism among Alaska Native persons--Alaska, 1947-2007.

Background: Foodborne botulism resulting from consumption of uncooked aquatic game foods has been an endemic hazard among Alaska Native populations for centuries. Our review was conducted to help target botulism prevention and response activities.

Methods: Records of Alaska botulism investigations for the period 1947-2007 were reviewed.

Outbreak of multidrug-resistant Salmonella typhimurium associated with ground beef served at a school potluck.

An outbreak of gastroenteritis occurred among at least 47 persons attending a school potluck. Illness was associated with consumption of ground beef (estimated odds ratio, 16.3; 95% confidence interval, 2.

Short report: molecular genetic characterization of an unusually severe case of hydatid disease in Alaska caused by the cervid strain of Echinococcus granulosus.

Distinct Echinococcus granulosus life cycle patterns have been described in North America: domestic and sylvatic. Gene sequences of the sylvatic E. granulosus indicate that it represents a separate variant.

Two atypical cases of cystic echinococcosis (Echinococcus granulosus) in Alaska, 1999.

Before 1999, clinical experience demonstrated that the sylvatic (or Northern) biotype of Echinococcus granulosus seen in Alaska produced fewer complications and serious sequelae than infection with the pastoral (or European) biotype found in other parts of the world. Two cases of E. granulosus with severe sequelae occurred in Alaska in 1999.