State health agencies ban travel to Mexico

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The Texas Health and Human Services Commission has banned workers in five state agencies from traveling to Mexico to conduct research or work on binational health programs because of fears of kidnappings and other drug cartel-fueled violence.

New Mexico health officials also have reduced travel to Mexico because of safety and budget concerns, a spokeswoman said.

The Texas commission informed employees of the state’s health and human services system in late February after the U.S. Department of State issued a travel alert that advised federal employees not to travel to Mexico without a supervisor’s approval.

“We’ve learned about the increase in violence, including kidnapping, and the increase of crime in Mexico,” Carrie Williams, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of State Health Services, told the Valley Morning Star.

On Feb. 18, a gunfight between suspected members of a drug cartel and police in Reynosa, Mexico, across the border from McAllen, killed at least six people.

The state agencies oversee a variety of binational health programs, including tuberculosis treatment, health education and disease data sharing.

The travel restriction could be a hurdle, at least initially, for some health professionals.

Much of the communication between the two countries is already done electronically, but testing and treatment of tuberculosis patients among other tasks could become more challenging.

“If we can do things by telephone or e-mail, we will,” said Dr. Brian Smith, regional director for the Department of State Health Services in the Rio Grande Valley. “The big effect is going to be on our binational TB program, but we’re trying to work around (the restrictions)... it will require greater ingenuity.”

New Mexico state health workers have also reduced their travel in Mexico in recent months due to safety concerns and budget restrictions, said Deborah Busemeyer, spokeswoman for the New Mexico Department of Health.

“We have not banned travel though we have decreased travel to Mexico in recent months,” Busemeyer said. Where employees used to meet in Mexico several times a month, now they go maybe once, she said. Many of the regular meetings that used to take place in Mexico had moved to U.S. locations.

Texas’ ban had also forced health agencies in other border states to look for alternative meeting locations outside of Mexico so their Texas colleagues could join them, she said.