For Native American communities across the Great Plains, the data paint a clear picture of the devastation caused by an ongoing syphilis outbreak.
According to the South Dakota Department of Health, 649 Cases of syphilis have been documented this year. Of those, 546 were diagnosed among Native Americans, who constitute only 9 percent of the state’s population.
“It’s completely preventable and curable, so something went terribly wrong and this happened,” he said. Meghan Curry O’Connellthe director of public health of the Great Plains Tribal Leaders Board of Health and citizen of the Cherokee Nation.
This year, the health board of tribal leaders asked the US Department of Health and Human Services declare the outbreak a public health emergency, which could facilitate access to other resources that tribal leaders requested, including public health workers, data, national stockpiles of supplies and funding.
According to the Great Plains Tribal Epidemiology Centersyphilis rates among Native Americans in their region, which covers Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota, skyrocketed in 1.865 percent from 2020 to 2022: more than 10 times the increase at the national level during the same period. The epidemiology center also found that 1 in 40 Native American babies born in the region in 2022 had a life-threatening syphilis infection.
O’Connell said HHS officials’ response to the Great Plains Tribal Leaders Health Board did not meet their requests. More recently, the National Board of Health India He also sent a letter to the agency urging it to declare a public health emergency for all tribes in the United States.
Months later, no public health emergency has been declared and health and tribal leaders continue to respond to the outbreak with limited resources.
HHS officials highlighted their work to form a task force and host workshops to guide the tribes’ response to the outbreak. But tribal leaders insist they need more federal investment.
“We know how to address this, but we need additional support and resources to do it,” O’Connell said.
Still, some health officials serving Native American communities say they are seeing improvements. Natalia Holta doctor and the medical director of the Great Plains Area Indian Health Serviceone of 12 Regional divisions of the federal agency responsible for providing health care to Native Americans said new cases have been declining.
Indian health service facilities in the region have averaged more than 1,300 monthly syphilis testing, he said, and cases have declined since 93 in January to 31 in October.
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