Yukon Kuskokwim Nushagak science

via the great site, http://medlib.med.utah.edu/blogs/BHIC/

New: CDC’s 2006-07 Flu Gallery Materials
On August 21, CDC posted an array of downloadable patient and provider education materials to its influenza web section: Patient education materials for the 2006-07 flu season; provider education materials for the 2006-07 flu season; patient screening form for trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine (TIV); Stop the Spread of Germs posters and flyers in several languages; fact sheets in several languages and influenza vaccine VISs. Materials:

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/professionals/patiented.htm

Influenza in Alaska: Hearings Before the Committee on Appropriations, United States Senate,…
By United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Appropriations.
Title: Influenza in Alaska
Publisher: G.P.O.
Author(s): United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Appropriations
Publication Date: 1919
Pages: 21

Google Books has just started allowing downloads of books in the public domain! here is this report, in pdf format.

http://tinyurl.com/kgusd

500mi@BET, 1000mi@BET, 1500@BET, 2500@BET Radius in miles from Bethel airport.

Maps generated by the
Great Circle Mapper -
copyright © Karl L. Swartz.

Site Search Tags: Great+Circle, Bethel, Alaska, BET

The geese have been gathering this week and last for their trip southwards. They will be taking all many of their little microbes with them. (Some are dropped behind in the— diminishing over time— tundra ponds and grasses.)

The alarm has gone up in the lower 48 with expanded bird sampling across the US. It is very unlikely there is any HPAI to accompany the birds, but it is easier to get a cloaca swab than to give tourists the bum’s rush.

The geese, swans, and cranes are among the last to leave. The little birds left about 3-4 weeks ago. The only thing left for combating the flying biting insects is a good swat. And a hard freeze.

view south of tundra pond in Bethel, 2006aug25

Site Search Tags: cloaca, geese, ponds, tourists, sampling, HPAI, tundra, cranes, 48

Kind of. At least one can find the totals, after 4 months.

http://wildlifedisease.nbii.gov/ai/

Read the rest of this entry »

If anyone wants to work on solid waste issues, let me know in the comments box and I can start a new section here at YKAlaska.uniblogs.org

Otherwise, I’ve been placing materials here that might be of use —

• Rural SWMP Solid Waste Management Planning

Planning in addition to the Manuals suggested here — Manuals Available to Assist Communities with Solid Waste Planning and Education

16 AUGUST 2006 | BANGKOK — World-famous actor and martial arts expert Jackie Chan stars in a new television public service announcement to alert children and their families around the world to the dangers of highly pathogenic avian influenza, or bird flu….

The PSA was produced by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO), with funding from the Government of Japan….
The children in the PSA, ranging in age from 6 to 9, were filmed at Sha Tin Junior School in Hong Kong….

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/notes/2006/ jackie_chan/en/index.html

Streaming video or to order–

http://tinyurl.com/gtvj4

Site Search Tags: video, television, PSAs, UN

2005 American Community Survey (ACS) data are now being released. The 2005 ACS data include demographic and social information such as race, Hispanic origin, age, education, marital status, grandparents as caregivers, veterans, disability status and U.S. citizenship. The data is available for nearly 7,000 areas, including all congressional districts and counties, cities and American Indian/Alaska native areas of 65,000 population or more.

http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en

reference from BHIC

http://library.med.utah.edu/blogs/BHIC/ archives/cat_websites.html#001737

The first is the Pro-Med summary, which is generally a more reliable source of news than the general news media. Following are the general news coverage. [results]

Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2006 23:06:34 -0400 (EDT)
From: ProMED-mail
Subject: PRO/AH/EDR> Avian influenza, mute swan - USA (MI): LPAI, susp.

AVIAN INFLUENZA, MUTE SWAN - USA (MICHIGAN): LOW PATHOGENICITY AVIAN INFLUENZA, SUSPECTED
…
LPAI commonly occurs in wild birds, where it typically causes only minor signs or no noticeable signs. These strains of the virus are not a human health concern. This includes LPAI H5N1, commonly referred to as the North American H5N1. This strain of low pathogenicity avian influenza is very different from the more severe high pathogenicity HPAI H5N1 circulating overseas, which is commonly referred to as the Asian H5N1.

Evidence of LPAI H5N1 has been found on 2 occasions in wild birds in the United States. In 1975 and 1986, it was detected in wild ducks. These detections occurred as part of routine sampling. LPAI H5N1 has also been detected in Canada, most recently in 2005.

[emphasis added]

Read the rest of this entry »

Guardsmen will patrol fire-ravaged village
HOOPER BAY: Calls to police are surging in charred community.

By ALEX deMARBAN, Anchorage Daily News
Published: August 10, 2006, Last Modified: August 10, 2006 at 03:37 AM

Alaska National Guard soldiers, with help from some volunteers, will help maintain order in the fire-ravaged village of Hooper Bay.

Police in the Southwest Alaska village of 1,133 are facing a surge in calls since the massive Aug. 3 fire, Police Chief James Hoelscher said Wednesday.

Hooper Bayers are panicky, and rightfully so — especially if they see kids playing with matches, he said.”
….
Four volunteers with the Alaska State Defense Force, civilians who assist during emergencies under the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, will help police shoo kids from the dangerous piles of twisted metal rising from the soot where the fire raged, Hoelscher said.

Seven guardsmen will help patrol the village and keep the peace….

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/rural/story/8062331p-7955268c.html

Site Search Tags: Iraq, Guard, children, cleanup, Hooper Bay

Pandemic Flu Preparedness: What Every Community Should Know
September 29, 2006, 2:00 - 3:00 pm ET
A National Satellite Broadcast & Webcast, Site registration will begin August 21
[deadline]

It’s just an hour, but maybe will have links and readings posted.

“Public Health Grand Rounds is a series of satellite broadcasts and webcasts presenting real-world case studies on public health issues ranging from obesity to bioterrorism, from SARS to food safety.”

http://www.publichealthgrandrounds.unc.edu/index.htm

Site Search Tags: deadline, broadcast, webcast

Our little birds contributed to new scientific knowledge! I always let the children look through my Cabela’s polarized fishing spectacles, to identify polluted water or comprehend the effect of polarized light on sky, clouds, and vegetation color. (I once tried to get donations of the inexpensive glasses as Pollution Peepers, for the VISTAs/IGAPs to use as environmental prizes instead of candy and snacks.) Anyway, resetting the magnetic compass with polarized light is a clever solution, as the magnetic north wanders all over the place.

By Dennis O’Brien, Balto Sun reporter, Originally published August 11, 2006

…Biologists have known for decades that migrating birds use celestial cues and the earth’s magnetic field to find their way across continents and oceans.

But researchers from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg and Lund University in Sweden say experiments with savannah sparrows in Alaska show the birds take readings of polarized sunlight at sunrise and sunset and use them to periodically recalibrate their magnetic compasses….

Rays of ordinary light vibrate in different directions, but polarized light rays vibrate in only one direction - making them difficult for us to see. Birds that migrate at night use them at sunrise and sunset, when the rays are most evident, Muheim said.

In the study, Muheim caught 50 savannah sparrows in the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge and threw off their celestial compasses by placing polarized light filters over their cages for an hour at either sunrise or sunset….

Read the rest here

http://tinyurl.com/hh35p

Site Search Tags: migration

I would do it sooner and prepare for longer in rural and remote areas. But it is a first step to start now.

Take the next 24 weeks and build a 7 Day Survival Kit!

Some find it difficult to put together a disaster preparedness kit, but using this easy-to-follow Preparedness Supplies Calendar will help you and your family take the anxiety and frustration out of preparing for emergencies or disasters by ensuring you have enough supplies to last seven days or until help arrives.

http://www.ak-prepared.com/homelandsecurity/pdf/7_Day_Supply_Calendar.pdf

Other planning guides here

http://www.ak-prepared.com/homelandsecurity/citizenpreparedness.htm

The City of Bethel did not participate.

State Pandemic Influenza Summits

One of the major issues discussed at the summit was stockpiling of antivirals and personal protective equipment (PPE). Alaska has only 24 hospitals and 1400 hospital beds, which serve 300 communities. Some of these communities are not on the road system and are only accessible by airplane. It is therefore imperative for these isolated communities to have access to antivirals and PPE before a pandemic closes transportation routes. Alaska plans to stockpile these items in a centralized location, and will move the supplies to regional hub communities if and when the WHO elevates the pandemic alert phase.

Throughout the summer, the state Department of Health and Social Services, in cooperation with partners in the state homeland security agency and the tribal health system, will conduct a statewide outreach program in 15 hub communities across Alaska. This program will assist with the development or revision of local emergency plans to support response to a pandemic, and will include tabletop exercises to help local responders assess their readiness. [emphasis added]

2006 Association of State and Territorial Health Officials Issue Report: State Pandemic Influenza Summits
State Pandemic Influenza Summits: Building Partnerships for Pandemic Preparedness
Retrieved 2006 July 28 from http://www.ASTHO.org Pandemic Preparedness Report.

Site Search Tags: Alaska, Bethel, rural, disaster

2003 0304, 0304 cases, deaths
2004 46, 32
2005 95, 41
2006 8990, 59 60

Total to date 233 235135137

revised 2006aug08

The updates are too many. Check the page at

http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/country/en/

http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/ country/cases_table_2006_08_07/en/index.html

Site Search Tags: WHO, epidemiology

A project funded by the NSF Arctic Social Sciences program entitled White Plague: A Historical Ethnography of Tuberculosis Among Yup’ik Peoples of Southwestern Alaska examines the social effects of tuberculosis (TB). This disease was endemic in the Alaska Native population during the 19th century. Due to increasingly sustained contact with outsiders, by the mid 20th century it had reached epidemic proportions, devastating many rural communities. In the 1930s, one out of three Alaska Natives died of TB. In southwestern Alaska, Yup’ik people had one of the highest reported incidence and prevalence rates in the world. By the 1950s, it was estimated that one out of every thirty indigenous Alaskans was in a tuberculosis sanatorium, most located outside of Alaska in the Seattle/Tacoma area, remaining there for two or more years….

By the mid 1950s, a massive public health campaign against TB in Alaska was well underway, and within two decades dramatic improvement occurred in both morbidity and mortality rates with the introduction of intensive control efforts, including chemotherapy, quarantine measures, and surveillance. By the 1970s, tuberculosis was no longer the primary cause of death among Alaska Natives The ways indigenous people responded in their everyday lives to the desolate circumstances and public health interventions have largely gone unexplored. Linda Green, an anthropologist at the University of Arizona, leads the Alaska-based research team collecting oral histories from community members in three villages — Hooper Bay, Chevak, and Nunapichuk — in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta and interviewing public health and medical practitioners who provided services to those with TB….

After data analysis is complete, Green will write a historical ethnography focusing on how processes of modernity — specifically, changing public health and medical policies and practices — influenced a reworking of Alaska Native identity, social relations, and social organization.

For more information, contact Linda Green (lbgreen AT email DOT arizona.edu; 520-621-6291).

Witness the Arctic: Chronicles of the NSF Arctic Sciences Program Spring 2006, Volume 12 Number 1, page 4, is published biannually by ARCUS

http://www.arcus.org

Site Search Tags:
Chevak
Hooper+Bay
Nunapitchuk
orphan
Seattle
TB
tuberculosis
Yup’ik

http://www.helpage.org/Resources/Manuals#1118336526-0-10
Older people in disasters and humanitarian crises: Guidelines for best practice

Ageways is a semi-annual publication from HelpAge International HelpAge.org. It has much we can learn from the so-called Third World. Their entry page for emergencies is here

http://www.helpage.org/Emergencies

Site Search Tags:
elderly
aging
elders
senior+citizen
checklist
guidelines

Honolulu Advertiser - Honolulu,HI,USA
… These are the early reports and they give no indication that bird flu
introduced to Alaska by other migratory birds, perhaps from Asia, have
killed the kolea …
http://tinyurl.com/hrll7

[I heard one last week up here. But the summer is nearly gone.]

Site Search Tags: Kolea, plover, Polynesia

This photo of the flames nearing the bulk fuel tanks was taken earlier this morning. The existing school is totally destroyed. Currently, the weather is good— it is not sub-zero; neither Bethel airport or Hooper Bay are fog-bound; it is not the autumn gales.

When the crisis slows, I hope the Village will let us know what they found worked and what didn’t work in their response plans.

Ironically, since April, the state has been waiting for the City of Bethel to host a preparedness exercise that would also involve all the other Villages in our region (the state is only doing regional meetings). The City didn’t respond. In early June, the Bethel Fire Chief and other leaders said publicly that there was no need to do disaster planning except at the airport—

• we are not unprepared
• dispatcher must have been new
• we’ve done it before
• we survived
• will be tough but we shelter our own
• we have food on the shelves
• we have the oil tank farm
• we make our own water
• we have electricity
• Katrina? that was Louisiana

Fire still raging in Hooper Bay
By ALEX deMARBAN, Anchorage Daily News
Published: August 3, 2006, Last Modified: August 3, 2006 at 11:56 AM

A state forestry helicopter that scoops water from lakes is on its way to the Western Alaska village of Hooper Bay to help fight a raging fire that’s destroyed the elementary school, teacher housing and up to 10 private homes, state officials said.

At least 250 people have been evacuated from threatened homes. The helicopter, from McGrath, should arrive early this afternoon.

Public Safety Commissioner Bill Tandeske says the school and nearby buildings have burned to the ground and ten homes have also burned.

Officials with the Alaska National Guard say a grocery store has caught fire and dozens of other buildings, including city hall, are threatened…

Volunteer firefighters from the larger community of Bethel, about 154 miles southeast, are also flying to Hooper Bay to fight the fire, officials said….

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/rural/story/8036906p-7930027c.html

Nothing too new, but there is an inclusion of GUIDANCE FOR AIRLINE FLIGHT CREWS
http://www.osha.gov/dsg/guidance/avian-flu.html