Published Feb 14, 2024

A man dying from the newly discovered Alaskapox indicates that the viral disease could be "more geographically widespread" than previously thought, according to the Alaska Section of Epidemiology.

His passing marks the first-ever death from the disease, and the first case outside of the region it was first found.

"The patient's immunocompromised status likely contributed to illness severity. Moreover, being the first case of Alaskapox identified outside of the Interior region, it indicates that AKPV appears to be more geographically widespread in Alaska's small mammals than previously known and warrants increased statewide awareness among clinicians," the health department said in the statement.

The man may have been infected by a stray cat that he was looking after, which hunted small mammals and "frequently scratched the patient, including one notable scratch near his right axilla in the month prior to rash onset," according to the statement.

"The route of exposure in this case remains unclear, although scratches from the stray cat represent a possible source of inoculation through fomite transmission. SOE is working with the University of Alaska Museum and CDC to test small mammals for AKPV outside of the Interior region," the department said.

Published Feb 13, 2024

Marina Alcantar is a doctoral candidate at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She says after talks with professors, they realized how little razor clams have been studied.

“As we moved forward, it became kind of shocking how much we didn't know about razor clams, especially considering how much they're loved, especially in Alaska,” she said, “and so it just really became kind of a mission to figure out some of their works, and how they will respond under future ocean acidification conditions.”

Alcantar collected clams from western Cook Inlet and transported them to the Alutiiq Pride Marine Institute in Seward for the study. She and the other researchers looked into the effect of ocean acidification on the early development of razor clams in Cook Inlet.

Published Feb 13, 2024

It’s been an especially snowy winter in many Alaska communities, and that has homeowners and business owners asking the question, should I shovel my roof? And the follow-up question, how do I do that without getting injured or breaking the bank? Talk of Alaska consulted two engineers for answers. Daniel King is the plan review engineer for the City of Anchorage and Scott Hamel is a professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage Department of Civil Engineering.

Q: I’m going to start with a big question. Should I shovel my roof?

Scott Hamel: I think in general, the answer at the moment is no. I think that, you know, we haven’t reached our design snow load yet, but we’re getting close. And we know we have a couple more months of winter. We don’t know how much more snow we’re gonna get. But, you know, like you said, I think people should start thinking about it because we are getting kind of close. It depends a lot on your house, or if you’re a commercial owner, what kind of roof you have.