Region 5 News

Travis Leyva Has Long History of Serving the Public at Dept. of Health

(Las Cruces) -- Travis Leyva has sat through hundreds of hours of training in his more than seven years with the New Mexico Department of Health.  As program manager of Disease Prevention Services at the Las Cruces Public Health Office, it is Leyva’s job to know about the latest trends and protocols for preventing and treating disease such as hepatitis C, HIV and sexually transmitted diseases and to help people suffering from addiction to drugs.  

Leyva’s training was put to the test when he and Maria Martinez, a nurse at the Las Cruces Public Health Office, were called into action to help someone who was suffering from a drug overdose outside a local health office.  Leyva and Martinez acted quickly and administered the drug Narcan, which can reverse the effects of a drug overdose.

“Going through training and learning about the proper way to administer Narcan is one thing, but putting that training into practice is another,” said Leyva, a Las Cruces native who graduated from Mayfield high school in 1995. “We were able to use our training in a real world scenario to help save a life. We have several programs at the Department that can help people suffering from diseases and I’m grateful that our services were able to help someone who may have otherwise lost her life.”

The Department of Health operates a program that provides intranasal spray Narcan at no cost to individuals who are injecting heroin or friends and family of injectors. People must go through a training before they are dispensed Narcan.  The Department of Health’s Harm Reduction Program reports as many as 9000 persons trained since 2001 with 3000 documented overdose reversals. The Department of Health also offers a syringe exchange program that helps prevent the spread of infectious diseases such as Hepatitis C.  

Read more about Travis Leyva

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Get Up and Get Moving! Click on the logo above to find a walking path in Las Cruces. For a printable version of the guidebook, click here.

 Otero County Walking Trails

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Health Observances

Feb .   AMD/Low Vision Aware Month

            American Heart Month

            Children's Dental Health Month

            Prenatal Infection Prevent Month

 3        Give Kids A Smile Day

 3        National Wear Red Day

7-14   Congenital Heart Defects Week

 14      National Donor Day