Anchorage Daily News

Alaska cases of sexually transmitted disease mostly fell in 2007, led by a 35 percent decline in new AIDS cases, according to the annual infectious disease report compiled by the state Department of Health and Social Services.

Also down significantly were new cases of tuberculosis.

Rural Alaskans, however, continued to experience a high rate of food-borne infections, including botulism, and also had to contend with a threefold increase in animal rabies.

Along with the drop in AIDS -- from 46 new cases in 2006 to 30 in 2007 -- the report also noted a 31 percent decline in new HIV infections (which can lead to AIDS), from 88 cases in 2006 to 61 cases last year.

In both instances, however, the change mostly reflects a statistical spike in 2006 -- when state health officials adopted new methods that allowed them to identify previously unreported HIV and AIDS cases -- and a return to normal in 2007, according to Mollie Rozier, director of the state's HIV/STD program.

Also down last year were new cases of gonorrhea and syphilis. Chlamydia infections, however, rose by 8 percent.

Last year saw Alaska partly recover from a 2006 tuberculosis outbreak, which resulted in 70 TB cases statewide, mostly in the Anchorage area. There were only 51 TB cases statewide in 2007.

Ten cases of botulism were reported in Alaska in 2007.

All but one of the botulism cases occurred in Southwest Alaska, according to the state epidemiology section. Each case was traced to traditionally prepared Alaska Native foods, including specific problems with fermented beluga, fermented beaver tail, fermented seal flipper, seal blubber, whale blubber and fermented fish heads. One person died from botulism.

Reports of animal rabies -- mostly infecting foxes -- continued to increase, from an average of eight cases a year from 2003-2005, to 18 cases in 2006 to 45 cases in 2007. All but one of the rabies cases last year occurred in coastal regions of northern and southwestern Alaska. Infected animals included 24 red foxes, 17 arctic wolves, three dogs and one wolf.

Rabies cases involving Alaska wildlife generally cycle up and down, depending on the rise and fall of wildlife populations, the report noted. The disease is always present in northern and western Alaska. Most of the rest of Alaska has never had a confirmed case of rabies.

New to the report this year, joining anthrax infections, was the inclusion of several diseases that could conceivably be spread by bioterrorists. Among these were smallpox, West Nile virus and SARS. No cases of those diseases were reported in Alaska.

Reported occurrences of giardiasis, also known as beaver fever, fell from 113 cases in 2006 to 79 cases in 2007. The illness results from ingestion or contact with the giardia protozoa in Alaska lakes and ponds.

Other notable diseases reported in Alaska in 2007 included: hepatitis A and B: 14 cases; hepatitis C: 1,141 cases (number includes old chronic cases); pneumococcal invasive disease (including pneumonia): 149 cases; salmonellosis, 87 cases; Lyme disease: 10 cases; shigellosis: eight cases; E. coli infections: five cases; malaria: two cases; vibriosis (including cholera): two cases; rheumatic fever: one case; leprosy (Hansen disease): one case.

Find George Bryson online at adn.com/contact/gbryson or call 257-4318.

ADVERTISEMENT