Frontera NorteSur October 2001

The Centers for Disease Control reports that there are on average 128 cases per year of the disease in the US. The disease's mortality rate is 3%-30% depending on the age of the victim. St. Louis encephalitis is only spread by mosquito bites and not through human-to-human contact.

Mosquitoes infected with St. Louis encephalitis have been found in the past weeks in Sunland Park, New Mexico which borders Cd. Juárez and is near El Paso. Infected mosquitoes have also been detected on the US-Mexico border at Santa Teresa, New Mexico.

Some of the people attending the meeting which founded the binational group were Cd. Juárez mayor Gustavo Elizondo, Alma Figueroa, the Cd. Juárez director of Ecología y Protección Civil, and Jorge C. Magaña, the director of the Department of Health for the city and county of El Paso.

Source: El Diario, August 7, 2001. Article by Horacio Carrasco.

Ciudad Juárez Firefighters and Police Officers Save Lives with Blood Donations

Ciudad Juárez hospitals routinely call on police officers and firefighters to donate blood in emergency situations. According to the Cd. Juárez newspaper El Diario, the city's residents do not respond to calls for blood donations which means that there are often blood shortages.

Rosendo Gaytán, spokesperson for the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS), says that in emergencies doctors use available blood and then the patients' family members are asked to donate a similar amount of blood. Prior to non-emergency surgeries patients are asked to have blood donated for them by family members. Gaytán says that the city's lack of blood donors has made such rules necessary.

On July 5, 2001 José Francisco Ramírez, an 060 operator (060 is the Mexican form of 911), took a call from the mother of Erick Ramírez Santillán, a four-day old newborn. The baby was suffering from blood poisoning and required an urgent transfusion. The mother cried as she explained her baby's situation and Ramírez said that he would give a liter of his own blood for the newborn. Ramírez told El Diario that he agreed to donate because he is a father of four and hoped that someone would give his children blood in a similar situation. Ramírez also knew that it would be hard to find someone else to give blood on such short notice.

According to a July 6 medical report newborn Erick Ramírez was in a critical state after the transfusion but the procedure had made it possible for him to survive.

Source: El Diario, July 6, 2001. Article by Luz del Carmen Sosa.

City of Miguel Alemán, Tamaulipas No Longer HIV-Free

Exactly three months after a Tamaulipas health official said that Miguel Alemán, Tamaulipas was a potentially AIDS-free border city, health officials now say that a sex worker from a downtown bar is HIV positive. The local health system is currently trying to find people that had sexual relations with the woman and test them for HIV.

Arnaldo Páez de León, the regional health coordinator, said that the health system has a program that will provide HIV medicine and information to HIV-positive people and their families.

Miguel Alemán is a border city of approximately 23,000 people between Nuevo Laredo and Reynosa.

To see a previous FNS article about the announcement of AIDS-free Miguel Alemán and its sex-worker STD testing program go to http://www.nmsu.edu/~frontera/may01/Matamorosnews.html and scroll down to May 14, 2001.

Source: El Mañana (Nuevo Laredo), August 14, 2001. Article by Alma Leticia González.

New Matamoros Neighborhoods Suffer Health-Care Deficit

The Matamoros newspaper El Bravo states that 50% of new arrivals to the city live in neighborhoods that lack health-care centers. Furthermore, the city and health services do not have the money necessary to provide for new infrastructure or an increased health-care payroll. Also, yearly medical budgets are established only taking into account current needs, not new demands that will be made on the health-care system throughout the year in fast-growing immigrant neighborhoods.

An example of the area's overwhelmed health-care system is the community health center in the Las Culturas neighborhood that was supposed to look after the medical needs of 3,000 patients per year. The center currently sees 18,000 people per year according to El Bravo.

The newspaper also reports that 1,300,000 pesos (approximately US$145,000) are needed to open and equip a new health-care center in Matamoros. This sum does not include salaries. Because of the high cost involved with opening medical centers, Matamoros must hope that social groups will help pay for three new centers needed around the city.

Source: El Bravo, July 20, 2001. Article by Verónica Guzmán Tapia.

Cocaine Use by Mexican Youth Explodes, Matamoros Fifth Biggest Drug User

Rolando Guajardo Pérez, a professor and expert on drug use at the Centro Universitario del Noreste, stated that according to statistics from the Sistema de Vigilancia Epidemiológica de las Adicciones (Addiction Epidemiological Vigilance System, SISVEA) 10.2% of Mexican minors used cocaine in 1997, up from 0.01% in 1994. In a presentation to hundreds of PAN youth activists Guajardo also said that Matamoros has the fifth highest rate of drug addiction in Mexico after Tijuana, Ciudad Juárez and other cities. The national drug addiction rate increased from 3.3% to 5.7% between 1993 and 1998 according to SISVEA data.

Presenting at a Matamoros conference, "Drug Addiction: Illness of the 21st Century," to mark the Worldwide Day Against Addictions, Guajardo also stated that 20% of all crimes committed in Mexico are directly associated with drug use.

Guajardo said that a united front against the growth of drug addiction must be formed. He stated that drug-use risk factors should be emphasized as much as law enforcement. The role of the family needs to be emphasized, adolescents need to be strengthened and society needs to take on the culture of violence, he said.

Source: El Bravo (Matamoros), June 27, 2001. Article by Víctor Manuel Villegas.

San Luis C-section Rate 13% in Public Hospital

The San Luis Río Colorado newspaper La Crónica reports that out of this year's 510 births in the city public hospital there have been 439 natural child births (86%) and 66 cesarean sections (13%). This C-section rate of 13% is quite good when compared to that of private clinics in Mexican cities where as many as 66% or more of all child births are via cesarean section. World Health Organization guidelines insist that C-section rates throughout the world should not be higher than 15% in any geographic area.

Jorge Figueroa González, an obstetrician and owner of the San Jorge Clinic, says that the C-section rate is rising in Mexico. One of the reasons for this is that doctors can receive two to three times as much money for a C-section than a natural childbirth. Figueroa also says that some doctors prefer cesarean sections because they can be scheduled and are completed in under 2 hours whereas a normal labor can take between 10 and 18 hours. The doctor also states that some women fear labor pains and therefore prefer a C-section.

Source: La Crónica (San Luis Río Colorado), July 31, 2001. Article by Santiago Barroso Alfaro.

Cirrhosis: Sixth-Leading Cause of Death in Méxicali

Noting that people are beginning to use alcohol at a younger age and that more women are becoming alcoholics, Filemón Espinosa Solís, a coordinator with the Servicios de Salud de la Jurisdicción Sanitaria, told the Méxicali newspaper La Crónica that cirrhosis is the sixth-leading cause of death in Méxicali.

Espinosa says that the disease causes a serious impact on the population, primarily affecting the working population between the ages of 18 and 29. Espinosa added that few people seek medical attention for the disease. So far this year cirrhosis has claimed the lives of 32 Méxicali residents and only 15 people have sought treatment for the disease.

Since 1996, cirrhosis has been the fourth, fifth or sixth-leading cause of death in Méxicali.

Source: La Crónica, July 17, 2001. Article by Javier Mejia.

Half of Méxicali's Rural Population Lacks a Dependable Safe Drinking Water Supply

More than half of the population of the Méxicali Valley is at risk of contracting diseases due to a lack of guaranteed safe drinking water.

The are currently 148 towns in the valley, with an estimated 128,571 inhabitants, that receive drinking water from delivery trucks or small town water systems known as "comités," according to Miguel Angel González Barriga, the director of the Comisión Estatal de Servicios Públicos de Méxicali (State Public Services Commission, CESPM). González also stated that there are currently only 52 towns in the Méxicali Valley on the CESPM system of pipes.

However, the linking of valley towns to the water network is moving ahead according to González who explained that in the past six years 32 towns have joined the CESPM system. By the end of 2001 ten others communities will be added to the network. 

González said that the CESPM has made an effort to provide water to each town, but some communities are content with their traditional system and do not want a change primarily because they receive unmetered water. The people in the towns that do not want CESPM water have yet to adopt a water conservation mentality, says González. He also added that many of these small town water systems, known as "comités," have neglected infrastructure that often totally collapse leaving people without water service.

To add a town to the CESPM network costs an average of one million pesos (approximately $105, 000 US). However, before putting in water infrastructure 80% of the town must want to join the future system. Also, all users agree to having metered water service.

Source: La Crónica, July 12, 2001. Article by José Manuel Yépiz Ruiz.

One in Ten Border Residents Diabetic?

Initial results from a binational study of diabetes along the US-Mexico border suggest that 1 of every 10 border residents is diabetic, according to the Border Health Initiative (BHI).

Dr. Oscar De La Riva of the BHI, a California-based group participating in the border-long study, is concerned about the test results. "We've gotten tests back from the laboratory and preliminary results show that 1 in 10 of the people tested have high blood sugar levels, which is a clear indication that the person may be diabetic," he said. "This is really something to worry about, especially considering that it is from a random sample of both the Hispanic and non-Hispanic population."

The study, which includes all ten US and Mexico border states, is part of a five-year program that deals with diabetes. The study's results will be used in the creation of education and outreach programs that will seek to lower the impact of diabetes in the area. Conducted by different government and non-government groups, the study is overseen by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).

De La Riva noted that diabetes can be affected by behavior and that education and resultant action can help mitigate the effects of the disease. "We're seeing a pattern of more people leading very sedentary lives and eating a lot of fatty foods," he commented. "Diabetes is a lifestyle disease; we drive everywhere and eat bad food," he added.

"Another thing coming out of these surveys is the lack of knowledge and information people have about diabetes. Many people didn't know that, even if they develop diabetes, they can control it." De La Riva stated.

Diabetes prevention and education programs will be created once the health surveys and tests are done in all ten border states and the CDC has reviewed the results.

Pharmacy Closed in Tijuana's Hospital General

The pharmacy in Tijuana's Hospital General was closed by the state's Instituto de Servicios de Salud Pública del Estado (State Public Health Services Institute, Isesalud) because it was filling some prescriptions with expired medicines and because adequate records were not being kept at the pharmacy. So as to meet patients' demand for drugs the hospital is now filling prescriptions out of its storage area. The hospital was closed after a randomly-chosen inspection was ordered from Méxicali, the Baja California state capitol.

The Hospital General has between five and thirty days to fix the problems that Isesalud found. While the hospital faces a penalty, Alberto Escalante, a state health official, says that the pharmacy may only receive a warning.

So far this year Isesalud has closed four other pharmacies although the majority of these were closed because citizens complained that the stores were illegally selling prescription medication.

Source: Frontera, June 27, 2001. Article by Kenia Rojas.