The National Indian Health Board has urged the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to declare a public health emergency as an alarming syphilis outbreak, which disproportionately affects Native Americans, continues. This is the latest plea for more resources from tribal leaders after previous requests went unanswered.
Community health workers are increasingly common in rural areas, where they help patients overcome barriers to accessing care and staying healthy.
For decades, state and federal agencies have restricted or delayed tribes and tribal epidemiology centers from accessing public health data, a blackout that leaves health workers in Native American communities cobbling together information to guide their work, including tracking devastating disease outbreaks.
Although Native American and Alaska Native adults are enrolled in Medicaid at higher rates than their white counterparts, many tribal leaders feel they’ve been left in the dark as states roll through the tumultuous Medicaid unwinding that started last year.
Hundreds of Native American tribes are getting money from settlements with companies that made or sold prescription painkillers. Some are investing it in sweat lodges, statistical models, and insurance-billing staffers.
The state is looking at ways to weed out false reporting of child abuse and neglect as the number of reports reaches a record high.
Tires emit huge volumes of particles and chemicals as they roll along the highway, and researchers are only beginning to understand the threat. One byproduct of tire use, 6PPD-q, is in regulators’ crosshairs after it was found to be killing fish.
A response is ramping up to a potential spillover of the neurological disease to humans from deer, elk, and other animals.
A response is ramping up to a potential spillover of the neurological disease to humans from deer, elk, and other animals.
Native American leaders see bison herds and ancestral gardens as ways to bring healthy eating to their people.
