Rabies is climbing among wildlife across the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta

Rabies is rising among wildlife in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, and the reason it reaches people there has to do with where foxes go in late winter.

Brian Berube of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium told a U.S. House subcommittee in June that outbreaks tend to arrive in late winter, when foxes move in close to villages and den in landfills. Most rural dogs live outdoors.

The Alaska Department of Health said Friday that after several years of lower activity, the state began seeing more land-animal rabies in early 2026 in areas where the disease is always present, the Y-K Delta among them.

Rabies is permanently established among foxes along northern and western coastal Alaska, holding at a low level with outbreaks every three or four years, and it turns up infrequently among bats in Southeast. The last human case in Alaska was reported in 1943.

Nationally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported an increase in human exposures to rabid or possibly rabid animals since July, after several jurisdictions reported errors in giving the shots that follow an exposure. That treatment is human rabies immune globulin plus four or five doses of vaccine, and the CDC is telling clinicians to assess the risk before starting it.

Providers can reach the state Section of Epidemiology for exposure assessments, treatment guidance and rabies testing, including after hours. Suspected rabid wildlife with no human exposure should be reported to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game at [email protected].

The Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation is urging residents to keep pet vaccinations current and to report bites promptly.