State: Medical team delivered vaccine past midnight in isolated Diomede

Diomede, circa 1999: A Little Diomede Island resident pulls a polar bear hide from the frozen Bering Sea to check if the sea lice have cleaned the hide enough for drying, in this file photo, date unknown. (AP Photo/Al Grillo, File)

A doctor and nurse were distributing swine flu vaccine past 2 a.m. last night in Diomede in an effort to keep the disease from spreading in the hard-to-reach Bering Strait village, state officials said today.

“We’ve got everybody on the island vaccinated except for four people," said Health Department spokesman Greg Wilkinson.

A 1-year-old girl in the village was showing signs of respiratory problems, but when the Alaska Army National Guard flew her and her mother to Nome yesterday the child tested negative for swine flu, said Jeremy Zidek, spokesman for the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

Diomede is 135 miles northwest of Nome, on Little Diomede Island. It’s about 2.5 miles across the Bering Strait from Russia and is one of the most remote communities in Alaska. You can only get there this time of year by helicopter and sometimes boat. The village lost passenger air service months ago. (Though food and mail still arrive on a regular basis.)

Responding to a request from the Diomede mayor, the state teamed up with the Guard and the regional health corporation this week, taking the unusual step of sending a civilian medical team and swine flu vaccines to protect the village.

“There were some sick people (there) and I think that these were just prudent actions to take to make sure that the disease wouldn’t spread through the isolated community where we wouldn’t be able to, perhaps, reach people at a later date,” Zidek said.

Some villagers are showing flu-like symptoms, but only people who are medivaced to Nome are actually tested for swine flu.

So far, at least three people from the village have been tested. One, a woman the Guard flew from the community on Wednesday, tested positive, the state says.

The doctor and nurse are expected to fly out of Little Diomede tonight, Zidek said. Two medics deployed to the village left last night with the 1-year-old girl.