Midway through the decade, Alaskans have failed to make significant progress toward the 2030 health targets in numerous categories, according to an annual tracking report issued by state and tribal officials.
The latest Healthy Alaskans update, compiled as of December, shows a lack of progress in reducing rates of drug- and alcohol-related deaths, continued sedentary behavior among adolescents, failure to improve inadequate rates of prenatal care for pregnant women and well-child care for young children, and continued high rates of death from accidental injuries and suicide, among other measures.
The Healthy Alaskans program is a partnership between the Alaska Department of Health and the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. The program sets decade-scale targets for improvements in a wide variety of health metrics, with progress updated in annual status reports.
The latest report shows areas where continued work is needed, as well as areas where there have been successes, said Andrea Fenaughty, a state public health manager and member of the Healthy Alaskans 2030 team. She and other health officials presented the status report findings on Jan. 28 at the annual Alaska Public Health Association Summit, held in Anchorage.
Of the 30 statewide Healthy Alaskans 2030 objectives, 20 showed no improvement. There were seven objectives for which 2030 targets had been met, two for which there have been progress and one for which data was missing.
Among the Healthy Alaskans 2030 objectives specific to Indigenous residents, there was no improvement in 14. Targets were met for two, improvement was recorded for eight and there was insufficient data for six.
A notable shortcoming highlighted in the annual status report is a decline in childhood vaccinations for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis. The combined diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis vaccine, commonly known as DTaP, should be administered four times to children before they are 2 years old, according to state and federal medical guidelines.
The Healthy Alaskans 2030 objective is for 90% compliance with that recommendation by the end of the decade. But currently, only about 63% of Alaska children between 2 and 3 years old had received the full course of four vaccine doses, said Eliza Ramsey, an epidemiologist working on a fellowship at the state Department of Health.
The low rate is poignant in 2025.
This year is the 100th anniversary of the deadly diphtheria outbreak in Nome that resulted in the famous delivery of medicine by sled dog teams. The 1925 Serum Run, which brought medicine from Fairbanks to Nome, uses part of what is now the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race course.
There have been no diphtheria cases in Alaska in the past 25 years, said Ramsey, who made a presentation at the summit about the history of the Nome outbreak and the serum run.
However, Alaska, like much of the country, has faced a big increase in pertussis, also known as whooping cough.
A notable improvement cited in the Healthy Alaskans status report concerns smoking and the use of electronic cigarettes. Alaskans have already met state health officials’ 2030 targets for dropping their dependence on those products, according to the status report.
Christy Knight, manager of the state’s Tobacco Prevention and Control Program, summarized tobacco-focused policy actions stretching back to the 1990s. Those included laws raising the age of legal purchase and hiking taxes — both actions aimed at reducing youth access to tobacco products — and a 2018 state law guaranteeing that workplaces and enclosed public places are smoke-free, she said.
A pending legislative effort would impose the first Alaska state tax on e-cigarette projects. The bill is sponsored by Senate President Gary Stevens. It is the third time he has introduced such a bill; the Legislature passed his first bill in 2023, but Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed it.
A bright spot concerns sugary drinks. Among children 3 years old and younger, the Health Alaskans 2030 target for reducing consumption of such drinks has already been achieved, the status report said.
The state’s Play Every Day campaign includes public messages urging parents to avoid giving their children sugar-laden drinks.
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