Glenda Lopez
Tuberculosis Bi-national
Program Coordinator
Project Esperanza y Amistad
DSHS-Region 8
Office (830) 758-4274
E-mail:
glenda.lopez@dshs.texas.gov
Purpose
Project Esperanza y
Amistad (Hope and Friendship) is the bi-national tuberculosis (TB) project for
the Texas Department of State Health Services-Public Health Region 8.
Mission
To reduce TB
morbidity and mortality in the border sister cities of Eagle Pass/Piedras
Negras and Del Rio/Ciudad Acuña.
The project provides case management,
treatment and follow up of people with tuberculosis who are considered to be
binational cases or contacts to people with TB. A bi-national case is someone
who meets one of the following criteria:
- Patient lives in Mexico but has relatives in the
U.S.
- Patient has dual residency in the U.S. and
Mexico
- Patient has contacts on both sides of the
border, in the U.S. and Mexico
- TB patient is referred from the U.S. for treatment or follow-up in Mexico or vice versa
- Under special circumstances, the program also accepts referrals to the program from other health agencies
History
Project Esperanza y
Amistad was first proposed in 2009. It
was established in 2010 and an agreement between Public Health Region (PHR) 8
and the State of Coahuila was signed in 2011. The project initiated its work in
February 2012 through a Binational TB Workgroup that was formed between Region 8 staff
and counterparts in Mexico. The
counterparts in Mexico are representatives from the different agencies involved
in the project such as the Secretariat of Health (Secretaria de Salud) and the
Mexican Institute of Social Security (Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social). This workgroup meets every 2-3 months to
discuss pertinent issues of the binational program and to establish guidelines
to ensure patient management and functionality of the project.
Project Esperanza y Amistad acts
as a supporting entity to complement the national TB program in Mexico. The
project provides contracted nursing staff in Piedras Negras and Ciudad Acuña to
support the Mexican TB program. The nurses are responsible for providing Directly
Observed Therapy (DOT), conducting contact investigations and providing follow
up chest x-rays and labs for binational patients. Project Esperanza y Amistad nurses also test
contacts to U.S. cases who live in Mexico.
They provide tuberculosis education to a variety of groups including nurses,
physicians, community health workers, non-profit health organizations, and
correctional facilities. The nurses also actively support the outreach efforts
of the Mexican TB program through participation in TB brigades (short trips into
rural areas called ejidos) to provide TB information and education to the
residents. These brigades are
coordinated by the Mexican Secretariat of Health (Secretaria de Salud).
As of June of 2016, Project
Esperanza y Amistad is now testing contacts to binational cases in Mexico using
the QFT (QuantiFeron) Gold Test. This
blood test is more accurate than the TB skin test and aids in the early
detection of latent TB infection and, in some cases, active TB disease. Mexican physicians who are managing binational
TB patients have agreed to offer latent TB infection treatment to those
contacts who would benefit.
For more information about
Binational TB Programs in Texas you can visit the following link:
http://www.dshs.texas.gov/borderhealth/Binational-Tuberculosis-Program.aspx