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For years, Tijuana, Mexico, has
grappled with a high TB rate; there are about 800 new cases of TB every year in
Tijuana, more than in any other part of Mexico. Dr. Concepcion Corona Rubio of
the Centro de Salud TB clinic explains that a number of factors predispose
Tijuana’s population to TB—a large number of immigrants and a great percentage
of people who use drugs—which drives up the number of people who test positive
for TB infection.
Since 2004, a San Diego-based
nonprofit organization called Project Concern International has boosted
Tijuana’s fight against TB by helping health officials fight the disease
throughout Mexico. However, the program’s funding runs out at the end of December.
Blanca Lomeli, director of the program Solucion TB, funded by Project Concern,
has helped change the way public health officials look at the disease. Lomeli
explains that instead of focusing on the number of people infected, Solucion TB
identifies why people are getting infected, getting the disease, and then
abandoning treatment. Solucion TB designs programs that account for all of
these factors and hires public health workers who visit patients’ homes to
ensure they are taking their medicine. Solucion TB has encouraged widespread TB
testing for earlier diagnoses of the disease. Dr. Paris Cerecer Callu explains
that Solucion TB has aided the health ministry in integrating its TB program
with efforts to control HIV and diabetes, since persons with these diseases are
at higher risk of getting TB.
But funding for Project Concern’s
Solucion TB, which comes from the US Agency for International Development, ends
in December. Program director Blanca Lomeli hopes public health officials in
Tijuana will keep up the fight against TB, explaining that they have learned
that when investing resources in the disease stops, the problem gets worse.
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!
