Introduction

Quintana Roo, the youngest state in Mexico, is home to Cancun and Cozumel along with Playa del Carmen, the fastest-growing city south of the United States. For six weeks of every year Quintana Roo receives over one million visitors. This region has an urgent need for a health care delivery system that can meet the rapidly growing demands of both residents and tourists.

The diversity of this population and the presence of epidemiological factors specific to the citizens of Quintana Roo impose unique requirements on a health care system. Statistics from the Institute of National Health in Mexico identify diabetes as the #1 cause of death, and cardiac and obstetrical diseases among the most important contributors to death and disability. Congenital heart disease appears to occur with a significantly higher frequency than it does in the rest of North America. The existing publicly funded health care system does not have the capacity to provide access to health care for the rapidly growing numbers of citizens and does not have the first world resources increasingly desired by citizens and tourists. Private, for profit hospitals are proliferating to take advantage of aspects of this market but many citizens are people of lesser means, unable to afford for profit health care.

Contemporary insights into the cause of diabetes and heart disease could be translated today into public health strategies to reduce the burden of disease among citizens. The dangers of obesity and a diet high in fat or carbohydrate could be communicated through public health awareness programs and in the educational system. Epidemiological studies will ultimately be needed to refine our understanding of the spectrum of diseases that harm the people of Quintana Roo and prioritize the focus of treatment and prevention.

Lavonna Redman
and
Ayuda de Los Angeles A.C.