Border Report Section 1 – Executive Summary

2,782,553 people live in the Texas-Mexico border region, which is defined as any county having a border that lies within 100 miles of the Texas-Mexico border.

• 89 percent of the population along the border is Hispanic/Latino.
• Rates of poverty are significantly higher along the Texas-Mexico border and 25 percent of persons in this region lack health insurance.

There were 321 new HIV diagnoses and 5,120 people living with HIV in the Texas-Mexico border region at the end of 2017.

• A much higher proportion of PLWH and new HIV diagnoses, in the Texas-Mexico border region, identify as Hispanic, compared to the state as a whole.
• A lower proportion of PLWH and new HIV diagnoses, in the Texas-Mexico border region, are among females compared to the state as a whole.
• A slightly higher percentage of persons diagnosed with HIV in the Texas-Mexico border region received an AIDS diagnosis within three months of their HIV diagnosis. This indicates that their HIV infection was diagnosed late.
• There was an 11 percent decline in late HIV diagnosis in the border region between 2014 and 2017.

There were 13,031 chlamydia diagnoses, 1,849 gonorrhea diagnoses, 118 primary and secondary syphilis diagnoses and 31 congenital syphilis diagnoses along the Texas-Mexico border region in 2017. 

• The Texas-Mexico border region had the highest rate of congenital syphilis in 2017 compared to anywhere else in Texas.

There were 219 Tuberculosis diagnoses along the Texas-Mexico border in 2017.

• Rates of TB have been declining for both the state and the Texas-Mexico border region.
• Rates in the border region are twice as high as the state overall.
   

HIV, STDs, and TB in the Texas-Mexico Border Region