After World War Two, Alaska fought tuberculosis by taking the sick away, often without telling their families where or why. Hospital ships, X-ray surveys and distant sanatoria from Sitka to Seattle removed patients, sometimes for years, until new drugs, village health aides and George Comstock's Bethel isoniazid trials turned the epidemic. The episode, told from Native sources, ends with why Alaska's health officials still name that history when discussing distrust.
Who's who
- George W. Comstock+1 more episodeEpidemiologist who led the Bethel isoniazid prevention trial
- Thomas Parran+1 more episodeFormer Surgeon General who led the 1954 TB report
- Margaret LantisAnthropologist who studied Alaska Native patients sent to Washington State
- Robert FortuinePhysician-historian, author of the standard history of TB in Alaska
- Anne Zink+2 more episodesAlaska chief medical officer who spoke of distrust rooted in the past
- Paul SherryFirst interim president of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium
- Ted Stevens+4 more episodesSenator whose Section 325 helped transfer health services to Native ownership
Where it happens
- Sitka, Alaska+3 more episodesSite of a distant sanatorium and Mount Edgecumbe
- Seattle, Washington+7 more episodesWhere Alaska Native patients were flown to sanatoria in 1954
- Bethel, Alaska+5 more episodesCenter of the isoniazid prevention trials
- Anchorage, Alaska+6 more episodesSite of the Alaska Native Service hospital and Medical Center
- Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska+1 more episodeRegion of the Bethel trials and village programs
Timeline
- 1946 to 1948Mass X-ray surveys begin; by 1948 about seventy percent of the population is X-rayed
- October 14, 1954290 Alaska Native TB patients are announced for flights to three Seattle sanatoria
- 1955The Indian Health Service takes over Alaska Native health care
- 1957The Bethel isoniazid prevention study begins
- 1968Congress formally authorizes the Community Health Aide Program
- January 4, 1999Ceremony marks the transfer of statewide tribal health services to Alaska Native ownership
Still debated
Sources differ on how many times the national rate Alaska Native TB reached in 1954, with twenty-seven and thirty both cited, and on the Bethel trial's exact dates and size. Consent in the trial is recorded only at village-council level, and no published ethical critique was found, so the questions are raised as questions.
Connected episodes in other series
