On Wednesday, the New Mexico Department of Health, in collaboration with the nonprofit Empowerment Congress of Doña Ana County, held a vaccine clinic at Doña Ana Community College in Anthony, New Mexico.
Federal funding cuts have hit the local nonprofit Empowerment Congress, with the organization losing the grant responsible for funding its vaccine access campaigns. Director of the organization Daisy Maldonado said these cuts will leave underserved communities with less access to healthcare.
"That funding supports [the] community health workers providing health based information to the community and then allows us to partner with the New Mexico Department of Health Vaccine Mobile Team to come out to the communities and provide these vaccines."
Maldonado said that while this clinic specifically didn't offer the measles vaccine, the current outbreak in southern New Mexico goes to show the importance of vaccine accessibility in underserved areas.
"That's sort of the power [of] the collaboration is that we're able to do a lot of the outreach, bring people in, and make sure that this event is well attended, because we already did the legwork to promote it."
As it stands, the New Mexico Department of Health is reporting that the current measles outbreak in the southern part of the state has infected over 60 people, and has now spread to Doña Ana County.
If you're a New Mexico resident and curious about your vaccination status regarding the measles and other diseases, you can find that information at vaxview.doh.nm.gov.
4/17/2025 Update: After the publication of this story, KRWG did hear from an official at the New Mexico Department of Health who provided the following statement:
Full Statement:
The New Mexico Department of Health's (NMDOH) vaccine supply and distribution continues with no interruptions. All planned vaccination clinics and walk-in vaccinations at public health offices in New Mexico remain in place. Since February 1st to April 16th, NMDOH has dispensed 19,357 doses of the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine to adults and children, nearly double the doses from the same period in 2024.
NMDOH continues to focus its response relating to the measles outbreak through those public health office services as well as continued outreach and education, including running the measles public service announcements on multiple broadcast and social media platforms and working with local communities to identify needs.
Federal funding cuts have resulted in our agency canceling some contracts with community providers that provide outreach to underserved communities relating to vaccination efforts and education to include temporary workers such as 13 community health workers with our Office of Border Health. There is no question any loss of funding affects underserved communities. The full impact of these services lost will be felt until a way can be found to restore them.
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