Conference Focuses on AIDS' Spread Along Border

Baja California health officials are concerned about the spread of HIV/AIDS along the border. The state has the fifth-highest number of HIV/AIDS cases in Mexico, with about 2,500 residents diagnosed since 1984. Half of those were found in Tijuana, which is adjacent to the largest border crossing along the US-Mexico border. A three-day medical conference, "The Border That Unites Us" last week in Tijuana, Mexico, addressed the implications of HIV/AIDS statistics and what can be done to lower them. Health and social workers from both sides of the border attended. Much of the conference focused on exchanging medical information, such as the latest treatment and staging methods, but it also provided a forum to address the problem on a regional level.

Baja California is especially vulnerable to the disease because of the regular flow of people across the border, and because of its growing drug problem. Baja California has just one hospice program for AIDS patients, and it is run by a non-governmental organization (NGO). Although the state of Baja has provided some money to treat HIV/AIDS in women and children, it only recently increased its outreach programs for men, said Blanca Lomeli, regional director for the Border Health Initiative, a program run through the NGO Project Concern International. The result is a disparity in treatment for patients who have contracted the diseases in the United States but ended up dying in Mexico. "In the United States, with more access to therapies and treatment, this can become a chronic disease," said Lomeli. "But people don't live with it as long here."

Back to other CDC news for November 19, 2001

Previous Updates