The Americas Branch in the Office of Global Affairs within HHS has announced funds are to be provided annually for $1,300,000 as part of cooperative agreements with the Arizona Department of Health Services, the California Department of Public Health, New Mexico Department of Health, and the Texas Department of Health. The plan is to strengthen public health services on the U.S. Mexico border.
The cooperative agreements are for a period of up to 5 years from 2011 to 2016. The primary goal of these cooperative agreements is to help the United States Mexico Border Health Commission (USMBHC) improve the health and quality of life for those living in the border region.
The focus areas under these cooperative agreements are tuberculosis, obesity, diabetes, infectious diseases, public health emergencies, strategic planning, providing access to care, research data collection and to form academic alliances.
The objectives are to:
• Focus on border health that transcends political changes
• Support investigations, research, or studies designed to identify evaluate and monitor on an ongoing basis health problems that affect the general population in the U.S.-Mexico border area
• Support bi-national public-private efforts to establish comprehensive and coordinated systems that use advanced technologies to the maximum extent possible to gather and monitor health-related data for the border areas
• To serve as a catalyst to prevent or resolve border health problems and educate the population concerning these problems
