Table of Contents
Preventing and Controlling
Tuberculosis
in the Hispanic
Community
Blanca Restrepo, Ph.D., assistant professor, epidemiology
and disease control,
School of Public
Health Brownsville Regional Campus and GSBS
Blanca Restrepo, Ph.D.
In the United States, one doesn’t consider tuberculosis (TB) as a widespread problem anymore. However, this airborne disease is still a major concern in Texas communities near the Mexican border.
“I got interested and decided to work on TB when I moved to the Lower Rio Grande Valley, on the Texas-Mexico border,” said Blanca Restrepo, Ph.D., a native of Colombia. “This infection is endemic in the local population and has importance in the rest of the country, and even the rest of the world.” Restrepo works with Hispanic populations both north and south of the border. “TB disproportionately affects minorities,” she said.
With expertise in microbiology and parasitology, Restrepo felt she could make a real contribution to managing TB in her community. “I saw that through my role as a researcher, I had the potential to provide insights on how to prevent and control it.”
Restrepo’s laboratory is part of the Hispanic Health Research Center that she helped co-design, a core of three laboratories funded by the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities. Her laboratory tracks transmission of TB in order to prevent spread of this disease to others in the community.
In addition, she studies individuals infected with multi-drug resistant strains of bacteria to ensure that correct antibiotics are administered. When caught early, TB is easily cured. But the longer an individual carries an infection, the more deadly this disease becomes, to the patient and to the community.
In her studies, Restrepo found that about 40 percent of patients with TB also have Type 2 diabetes. Further research is investigating whether diabetes may be involved in susceptibility to TB.
Restrepo has given back to her community through her research, as well as through public service. She routinely meets with health officials and other researchers from Mexican and Texan institutions in order to control and research TB in the border population. With the help of Restrepo’s research, TB at the border may become history.