Preventing Chronic Disease (Jan 2005)
Challenges and Opportunities in Border Health
Abstract
Approximately 11.5 million people reside in the 42 counties and 39 Mexican municipalities located along the U.S.-Mexico border, and 86% of those people reside in 14 pairs of sister cities, metropolitan areas divided by the international border (1). Border residents share similar resources and environmental problems: issues of great concern include air quality, water quantity and quality, and animal control. The communities along the border are economically and socially interdependent, with more than 1 million legal northbound crossings every day. The need to establish cooperation between the United States and Mexico for improving health has led to collaborative initiatives between the public and private sectors (1). The principal health problems at the U.S.-Mexico border are characterized by disparities in health systems (2), which result from the lower health standards and socioeconomic conditions of Mexican border communities compared with U.S. border communities.
