Northwest History. Alaska, Health Conditions. United States.

• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1937
• Subjects: Alaska; Ketchikan; maternal death rate; the United States; Dr. Sonia Chiefetz; territorial health department; mortality rate; Northwest; Pacific > History > 20th century; Pacific; Sonia; eskimo*
• Online Access: http://content.libraries.wsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/clipping/id/92264

Birth Mortality Soars In Alaska. BIRTH MORTALITY SOARS IN ALASKA KETCHIKAN, Alaska, May 22 (AP)—Alaska's maternal death rate, 10 out of every 1000 live births the past six years is nearly twice the United States average, and its infant mortality rate of nearly 160 out of each 1000 births is three times higher than the United States average, Dr. Sonia Chiefetz told interviewers. She heads the division of maternal and child health in the territorial health department. Doctor Chiefetz said the high mortality among the Indians and Eskimos accounts for the high infant mortality rate, as segregated figures on white babies are about the same as in the United States.