Federal health officials today launched a new web-based resource for residents along the U.S.-Mexico border and others seeking information on health and human services for border communities.
 
The U.S.-Mexico Border Health web site, which can be found at http://borderhealth.raconline.org, includes information on sources of health funding, grant-writing for health projects, health topics, links to health agencies in each border state, an overview of federal activities, and a searchable resource database.
 
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) funded the site, which was created and will be administered by the University of North Dakota’s Rural Assistance Center (RAC).  The RAC is housed in the Center for Rural Health at UND’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences. 
 
HRSA funded the RAC in 2002 to provide a single electronic information resource on health and human services for rural communities throughout the United States.   Since its launch, the RAC web site has received over 455,000 visits and RAC information specialists have responded to nearly 3,000 customized requests from people across the country.   
 
HRSA Administrator Betty Duke has placed a high priority on working with partners on both sides of the 2,200-mile border – including the U.S.-Mexico Border Health Commission (http://www.borderhealth.org/) and agency counterparts in the Mexican government – to try to improve the lives of border-area residents, whose health is among the worst in the nation.  In October of both 2004 and 2005, HRSA led the Federal government, in cooperation with the Border Health Commission, in coordinating dozens of health fairs, immunization drives and other activities in support of the first two annual observations of “Border Binational Health Week.”