Office of Border Health
New Mexico Department of Health - Division of Policy and Performance
Border Infectious Disease Surveillance (BIDS)
In June 1997, the United States–Mexico Border Health Association and the U.S. Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists passed resolutions to support surveillance for infectious diseases and emerging infectious diseases along the U.S.-Mexico border. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Mexican Secretariat of Health spearheaded efforts to initiate the project and formalized an agreement to establish the Border Infectious Disease Surveillance program (BIDS) through a memorandum of cooperation in epidemiology.
BIDS is the first binational, syndromic surveillance system for infectious diseases in the U.S.-Mexico border region. Before BIDS, there was a wide gap in border disease surveillance and no system to assess this unique zone. Surveillance case definitions used in the two countries were frequently incompatible, and laboratory confirmation was often unavailable in Mexico. BIDS has bridged this surveillance gap by forming partnerships among local, state, and federal institutions and public health authorities serving the region. CDC’s investment in BIDS serves as a seed for the development of a comprehensive border epidemiology and laboratory infrastructure. BIDS will provide data to guide the development of effective public health prevention and emergency preparedness strategies.
The Office of Border Health currently has one BIDS Officer/Epidemiologist on staff.
