Lead poisoning continues to be a problem in New Mexico. From 1994-1999 approximately 2.7 % of children under the age of 6 had elevated lead levels in Doña Ana County, New Mexico. Many of those considered at risk do not know that lead is a danger and are unaware of the availability of free blood-lead level testing. Doña Ana County is at the confluence of several industrial areas known to have been lead pollutants. Additionally, low income housing developments are known to have problems with lead. Lead is harmful in many ways. Expectant mothers can transfer lead to the developing fetus from any environmental exposure she experiences during pregnancy. Fetuses, infants, and children are particularly vulnerable to lead exposure because lead is more easily absorbed into their growing bodies. Additionally, their tissues are more sensitive to the damaging effects of lead. Another problem is that most children do not exhibit signs of lead poisoning and appear to be quite healthy. Lead poisoning can lead to developmental delays, learning disabilities, and in severe cases, even death. There are ways to offset the risk of lead exposure. First is to increase awareness of the dangers of lead through education. Next, conduct blood-lead level screening to establish baseline information on blood-lead levels in the previously mentioned population. Currently there is little to no data available. It is estimated that most individuals who qualify, do not receive the blood-lead level test. Thus only through education and testing can a parent/guardian be made aware of the dangers of lead poisoning and the resources available to them to take action.

System that allows health authorities of New Mexico, Texas and Chihuahua the opportunity to share and react timely to epidemiological alerts.

Nuestros Niños is a binational initiative started in 1992 in El Paso-Juarez-Las Cruces area and supported by OBH, BEC, and ORO. The ORO’s support has resulted in the continuation of immunization promotional activities in Southern New Mexico, West Texas and Northern Chihuahua. Several posters promoting children vaccination have been designed, replicated, and distributed in the area; and, the media promotional campaign has been expanded to other regional markets. The state wide New Mexico Immunization Coalition, adopted the Nuestros Niños logo and campaign as its platform for use throughout the state of New Mexico, the first border state to adopt a border-based initiative statewide. This project is a key component of the Immunization Weeks of the Americas and the Border Binational Health Week initiatives. The recognition of El Paso as the city with the highest rates of immunization in Texas and the recent recognition of New Mexico as the state with the highest rate of improvement nationally were areas of some impact through the Nuestros Niños campaign.

BIEN! is a community-based network of 24 partners that include local libraries, health clinics, hospitals, community and health organizations, and centers of higher education. The program provides access to a web-base portal (www.bienhealth.org) that provides access to reliable health information in English and Spanish to the public, health providers of clinics and hospitals, researchers, faculty, and students. The ORO is supporting the operation of this network and facilitating access to populations in Southern New Mexico by installing computers and Internet access in key locations such as community centers, libraries and health clinics primarily in rural areas and colonias. The ORO staff maintains the BIEN! Web site and the Border Epidemiology Center serves as the Secretariat office of the BIEN! Network.

The ORO partners with two Binational Health Councils (El Paso-Juarez-Las Cruces and Palomas-Luna County) to support border health initiatives. The ORO staff support the coordination and promotion of activities, meetings, development of binational programs, binational training and education campaigns and, other community-based networking efforts. Involvement in the above is focused on promotion of the USMBHC activities and problem resolution of needs of the respective areas of these two Binational Health Councils.

The USMBHC New Mexico commissioners participate as ex-officio members of the council, a relationship beneficial for both entities. The ORO staff support the meetings of the council and the active participation of members from throughout the region of Southern New Mexico. The ORO may provide direct or indirect support to the Council’s Promotora Committee in the areas of curriculum development and leadership training and education, to the Environmental Health Committee in the areas of program development and technical support to grant submissions, and to the Substance Abuse Committee that has now been chartered into the Southwest Regional Substance Abuse Collaborative.

The ORO staff in coordination with the Office of Border Health and other border partners support and promote activities related to these initiatives. This support extends indirectly throughout the state of New Mexico in conjunction with the New Mexico Immunization Coalition and the New Mexico Department of Health. The ORO staff was key to the successful outcome of the multitude of events in celebration of 2005 National Infant Immunization Week/Vaccination Week of the Americas (NIIW/VWA).

This project is a binational HIV/Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) health promotion and intervention project established in 1994 and currently supported by the New Mexico Outreach Office. The project was initiated to reduce the incidence of HIV/STD among high–risk populations in Palomas, Chihuahua and Luna County, New Mexico. The ORO staff worked with the Chihuahua Department of Health staff to design the Espejo Binational Health Promotion and Education Program. The intervention activities have allowed area clinicians to diagnose and treat STD cases, while health promotion activities educate the high-risk population to promote healthy behavior changes. The ORO staff has continued data analysis of the Espejo study population for 2004-2005. The plan includes training of health professionals and promotoras, design of promotional material, and an evaluation mechanism for the project. The Espejo Project has the potential to be replicated in Ciudad Juarez per the interest of the Health Department of the Municipality of Ciudad Juarez. The new health leadership of Chihuahua has committed to implement the next phase of Espejo during the latter parts of the funding year.

This is a binational, tri-state (Chihuahua, New Mexico, Texas) collaborative effort to study the prevalence of Hepatitis, HIV, and tuberculosis among intravenous drugs users. The first stage of the study was conducted in Doña Ana County; the following two stages will be taking place in El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua. The ORO provided technical support and resources for the provision of program incentives to enable the implementation of the first stage of the study. Failure to obtain the incentives would have prevented the project from moving forward. The NM ORO will be coordinating with the Texas ORO to assist in the support of the project for the Texas phase of the study.

The ORO support allowed the development and operation of the Substance Abuse Committee of the New Mexico Border Health Council and the Substance Abuse Commission of the Border Governors' Conference. Several meetings and workshops were supported, coordinated and/or attended by ORO staff. As a result, the ORO/BEC was actively involved in the development of the Substance Abuse Prevention Plan for the Southwestern New Mexico border counties that was developed by the newly integrated Southwest Regional Substance Abuse Collaborative. This new collaborative was chartered jointly by the New Mexico Border Health Council and the Behavioral Health Services Division of the Department of Health. The Office of Border Health Services as the Secretariat for the Collaborative, but logistical and data analysis support is provided by the ORO. In addition, the ORO supported the establishment of the Binational Border Alliance of Substance Abuse Coalitions, which will serve as the Border Governors Health Work Table committee on Substance Abuse. Through our efforts and the support of the other State OROs, we have a unique blend of new and coordinated effort for substance abuse along the U.S. – Mexico border.

The ORO continued support of the regional Binational Vector Control Working Group and its mosquito-borne disease plan by distributing bilingual promotional material and providing technical assistance. The ORO intervention decreased the occurrence of West Nile virus encephalitis in our area. Without this active promotional campaign our regional human case rates could be higher. The ORO’s Mosquito Health Education Program activities are directly related with deadly infectious diseases like West Nile virus and other encephalitis, dengue, and malaria, therefore in direct alignment with the Commission’s focus on health promotion and disease prevention and specifically targeting the prevention of infectious diseases in the area of environmental health.

The ORO partnered with the Las Cruces Independent School District on the development of a America on the Move campaign by providing 300 Health Measures SX Pedometers for students and staff. The campaign in the school district is being coordinated through the district’s Health and Nutrition Department. The ORO will attempt to support expansion of this vital health activity that promotes increase in exercise and walking for the participants and thereby impacting on the reduction of obesity and diabetes in school-aged children and school district staff.

The ORO staff maintained and supported the ORO web page and insured linkage to the USMBHC central office web page and other important web sites. The ORO provided services as a repository of regional publications and promotional materials and produced and distributed the Vision Newsletter, Nuestros Niños and other immunization related materials and promotion items, ORO brochures, joint community reports, the very popular Grant Opportunities Guide, now in its 8th Edition, and the Public Health Week Public Health Insert distributed throughout the region. The ORO also has a toll free phone number accessible from Mexico and the United States [800-260-0509]. The ORO supports local health personnel in attending different forums, like the Binational USMBHA Conference, Diabetes Conference, the STD/Syphilis Community Workshops, and other related forums requested by the community.

The Vacúname program is a research immunization initiative in Doña Ana, Sierra, Otero, and Luna Counties begun during this program year. The objective is to improve the on-time vaccination of children less than one year of age. This initiative is in partnership with the New Mexico Department of Health, La Clinica de Familia Community Health Center, and the Border Epidemiology Center. There are 17 clinics participating in this initiative. Early process data indicates very favorable results and thereby an increased interest from other clinic sites to participate in the project. This project will likely catch the attention of many at the state and national levels for potential replication.

The ORO has provided technical assistance to several agencies and not-for-profit organizations, including the Las Cruces Diocese in the area of county level data collection on numerous health related topics. Specific support to the Doña Ana County Health and Human Services Department was provided in the following areas:

• Access to Care grant proposal
• Development the Department’s health data sets
• Participation in the Department’s annual health funding proposal review committee

The ORO staff has continues to interact with staff from NMDOH District 1 and 3, as well as the Office of Epidemiology on border data analysis and GIS. The ORO coordinates with the Department’s EPI Community Workgroup, the Community Level Data Workgroup, the Small Numbers Data sharing Workgroup, the YRSS Data Group, and the BRFSS Data Group, and others.

The Border Epidemiology Center has integrated the activities of the ORO, such as the Healthy Gente initiative, into its operational mechanisms. This has allowed for the expansion of community, agency and key leader awareness of the ORO and broader commission activities and support for local or border-wide action on identified strategies. The Senior Research Specialist, a key member of the ORO Core Team, supports the Healthy Border initiative in New Mexico. This position supports all data and information needs for conducting outreach, data analysis, and assessment functions of the USMBHC. The position supports the BEC/ORO Director, the OBH’s and BEC's technical staff, the Healthy Gente/Healthy Border staff at the central and outreach offices, identified Mexico staff offices, and other consultants and related project staff. The position’s primary function is to gather border information, conduct analyses of priority health conditions, and collaborate on specific data analysis tasks in the binational border region as may be defined or assigned.

The Healthy Border/Healthy Gente initiative in the New Mexico border region is a model of a strategic management and planning tool. The process uses a modified Healthy People community planning process. Actions related to Healthy Border support a local health promotion and disease prevention agenda that is community-driven, population based and integrated with existing community health improvement processes; support the local and state public health roles of assessment, policy development and assurance; and, support the existing state and local public health strategic planning processes. The ORO staff provides technical assistance and data-driven support services to local organizations and programs that promote the Healthy Border/Healthy Gente initiative.

The ORO has created and populated a comprehensive database with NM Healthy Border/Healthy Gente indicators baseline data and have included data from 20 years ago to 2003 for some indicators. The information is available at county level for almost all indicators. ORO staff periodically analyze Healthy Border/Healthy Gente Indicators by county and disseminate reports to Binational Health Council members, Border Health Council members, local health agencies and clinics, interested local citizens, elected officials and others. As part of a border wide collaboration, ORO staff has been participating in the development of the US Border Health Status Report.

The New Mexico ORO director has been instrumental as a member of the Binational Technical Work Group and as the chair for the US section, reviewing and finalizing the Binational Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BBRFSS) questionnaire for the border region. The report will have available data at the county level for the border region and will integrate statistical analysis to compare and contrast the border sub-regions.

The ORO has provided technical assistance to the USMBHC central office Healthy Border and EWIDS programs and has been working closely with the CDC liaison.