By Margaret Bauman
Alaska Journal of Commerce

HIV/AIDS infection rates remain marginally higher among Alaska Natives, compared to the general population, a top official of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium said Jan. 11.

“It is a growing problem, and yes, it is at risk to gradually increase, so a lot of what we do is focused on prevention,” said Paul Sherry, executive director of ANTHC.

Sherry was responding to a recent Indian Health Service report that said American Indians and Alaska Natives have the third highest rate of HIV/AIDS in the United States. In Alaska, through 2005, there were 1,048 reported cases of HIV/AIDS, with Alaska Natives accounting for 238, or 23 percent of those cases, Sherry said.

Since Alaska Natives make up 16 percent of the total population, the state is somewhat higher than the percentage of the population would indicate, he said.

“This is not a huge disparity,” he said. “There are other areas where the disparity is higher; in suicide we are triple.”

The biggest health threats to Alaska Natives are still cancer, tobacco and substance abuse, diabetes and injuries of all kinds, he said.

Currently, the health consortium works with 140 patients in managing care and reducing the risk of transmitting the disease. ANTHC also trains physicians, nurses, pharmacists, dental providers and health aides, for their own work and to teach others.

Early intervention HIV/AIDS efforts are funded through $487,000 from the federal Centers for Disease Control's Ryan White funds, while another $190,000 from the Northwest AIDS Education and Training Center at the University of Washington is used for training and video conferencing, Sherry said. Some additional state funds are used to help men having sex with men focus on reducing the spread of the infection, he said.

The biggest challenge for the ANTHC efforts to stem the tide of HIV/AIDS among the Alaska Native population is the cost of travel and the logistics of getting staff out to 200-plus rural communities, Sherry said. “We cannot visit every community every year to do this,” he said.

Another challenge is overcoming the stigma of discussing sexuality in general and sexually transmitted diseases in particular, he said.

“A lot of our communities are small,” he said. “Having forums where we discuss HIV and communicable diseases is difficult. There is a general feeling out there that HIV is not a concern in rural communities and heterosexual communities.”

There is limited access to testing for HIV/AIDS in rural Alaska, and while there have been improvements in availability of getting testing capability out there, there is a reluctance to get tested due to a perceived lack of confidentiality, he said.

ANTHC prevention efforts include the Community Promise Intervention program in Anchorage that targets Native women at risk because they are IV drug users, sexually active and/or reporting sexually transmitted diseases.

Another community outreach effort in Anchorage works with Native men, and an ANTHC staffer works with social networks of gay Native men to promote testing and provide education, Sherry said.

Margaret Bauman can be reached at margie.bauman@alaskajournal.com.