June 24, 2010WASHINGTON (The New York Times News Service) -- Texas medical officials told Congress on Wednesday that U.S.-Mexican cooperation is essential to coping with tuberculosis outbreaks along the border.
Speaking at a conference at the U.S. Capitol, the health officials said the prevalence of TB is more than twice as high along the border as in the rest of Texas.
Maria Teresa Cerqueira, chief of the U.S.-Mexico Border Office at the Pan American Health Organization, said TB rates are rising along the border because there is "lack of integration (between the U.S. and Mexico) to fight the disease."
Participants came armed with Texas Medical Association documents noting that an outbreak of tuberculosis in Mexico can have an immediate impact along both sides of the border.
Teresa Nino, representing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said the new health care law will help minority communities, and particularly Latino populations.
"The Affordable Care Act expands health care coverage to millions of people who have not had it before, many of whom may be young families," said Nino, director of the Office of External Affairs and Beneficiary Services Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
She said one in five young Latinos have no access to health care and are prime candidates for Medicaid, the federal-state program that helps pay for health care for low-income families with children.
Minority communities in the border region face other health care challenges. Obesity affects 30 percent of adults, according to the TMA.
The obesity epidemic has led to increased diabetes rates. A study by the U.S.-Mexico Border Diabetes Prevention and Control Project found diabetes was the fourth leading cause of death among Texas Hispanics in 2006.
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