Uptick in Tuberculosis Cases Across the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta Forces In-School Testing

The Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation is dispatching health teams to multiple villages in the Y-K Delta this month to test school age kids for tuberculosis. Case counts are trending above average this year, APM reports. The situation has been further complicated by the coronavirus pandemic and the repeal of a state law that required in-school testing.

The incidence rate for tuberculosis in Alaska is nearly four times the national average.

At the Public Health Center in Bethel, eight of the nine full-time nursing positions are unfilled. An official said that nurses are burned out.

There’s currently only one traveling nurse who manages TB cases in the region.