Frontera NorteSur April-May 2003

TB Arrives to Nuevo Laredo with Immigrants from the Mexican Interior

Nuevo Laredo has a high rate of tuberculosis due to continued immigration from the Mexican interior, said Víctor Javier Solalinde Silva, the coordinator for Nuevo Laredo's tuberculosis (TB) program. Despite the city's work to eradicate the disease, its presence will continue as ever more people bring the disease with them when they arrive to the border city, he stated.

A city of over 300,000 people according to a Tamaulipas government web site, Nuevo Laredo registered 226 cases of TB in 2002. Solalinde also stated that at least 200 cases are detected every year and the majority of TB patients are cured of their disease. A Nuevo Laredo health center detects 65% of TB in the city, while the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social system finds 30% of new cases and the Instituto del Seguro Social al Servicio de los Trabajadores del Estado (State Workers' Insurance System) discovers the remaining 5%. 

"So far this year, 35 cases of TB have been detected, a short way from our goal, and this is because detection efforts have been intensified. The problem is severe but to some degree the number of new cases is normal," Solalinde stated.  "The average age of carriers is between 18 and 50, and it's rarely found in children: of 200 cases only two would be found in children."

According to Solalinde, people with weak immune systems are more likely to carry the disease. At risk populations include diabetics, the malnourished and drug addicts. 

Solalinde also stated that the Mexican government has implemented a program to completely eradicate TB. Under this program, people that suffer from the disease receive free treatment. 

Source: El Mañana (Nuevo Laredo), March 28, 2003. Article by Mónica Lobo. 

Growing Elderly Population Challenges Baja California

Over the course of the week, the Mexican border press has been publishing numerous, long articles about the elderly, how they will be cared for in the future and their current impact on the medical system. One article, in the Mexicali newspaper La Crónica, took a close look at the issues Baja California is facing. 

Baja California State Representative Nicolás Osuna Aguilasocho, who has created a plan to assist the states elderly poor, says that BC has 261,000 citizens over the age of 60. Of these 261,000 people, less than one fifth have retirements or pensions that include medical coverage. What is worse, according to Osuna, is that the large majority of retired people with pensions receive less than the equivalent of US$5 per day. 

Margarita Williams Arias, who works with the Baja California office of the Instituto Nacional de las Personas Adultas Mayores (National Institute for Senior Persons), confirms the state's elderly crisis. Williams says that every week in Tijuana, two or three elderly people are abandoned in the streets by their families. This phenomena has led senior homes to become filled to capacity around the state. 

Particularly affected among BC's elderly are women, says Osuna, as 50% of them receive no retirement funds at all which they need for food, housing and medical care. This is unacceptable and unjust, Osuna states, and he has come up with a plan to partially remedy the problem.

Osuna's idea is to provide food aid and medical support to the state's seniors. To qualify, the person must have lived for at least ten years in BC and must demonstrate need. A socioeconomic study of the person's condition would be conducted before the person was eligible for the program. 

Source: La Crónica (Mexicali), February 12, 2003. Article by Gregorio Avilés.