Juárez offers refuge, medicine at shelters

By Louie Gilot / El Paso Times
El Paso Times
Article Launched:01/20/2007 12:00:22 AM MST

Efforts to shelter the poor from a snowstorm that never came Friday turned into a public health menace in Juárez, city officials said.

City officials had opened several shelters in gymnasiums Thursday night after the city declared a preventive weather alert.

Dozens of people sought refuge and were met by mobile medical units posted in front of the shelters, screening people and vaccinating others.

"The medical attention we are bringing to them is due to the fact that many refugees came to the shelters with respiratory ailments, the flu and coughing fits and have contaminated others," said Efrén Matamoros Barraza, director of public safety for the city of Juárez.

Thursday night, two cases of tuberculosis were discovered at one shelter on Toronja Roja and Sorgo streets.

City officials said the patients were taken to a clinic and later to Juárez General Hospital for tests. The other occupants of the shelter were reassigned to other sites while the shelter was disinfected.