MEXICO: Health Officials Launch Alert as Spring Breakers Pour In

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Diego Cevallos

MEXICO CITY, Feb 21 2005 (IPS) - The discovery in the United States of a virulent new strain of the AIDS virus has led Mexican health authorities to sound the alert in Cancún, the beach resort regularly inundated at this time of year with U.S. college students looking for a good time.

Residents of this world-famous Caribbean tourism hotspot on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula have been warned to take extra precautions if they engage in sexual relations with the young tourists flooding in during Spring Break, as the annual recess in U.S. university classes is known.

>From mid-February through March, Cancún’s beaches, hotels and discotheques are filled with pleasure-seeking students from the United States, many of whom engage in high-risk behaviours like excessive consumption of alcohol and drugs and unprotected sex.

Last year, five young tourists died in Cancún (which means "serpent’s nest" in the indigenous Mayan language). Two were victims of overdoses, one was killed in a car accident, one drowned, and the fifth committed suicide after a night of partying.

William Sauri Gutiérrez, a representative of the Mexican National Secretariat of Health in Cancún, told IPS that a general alert has been issued, recommending the use of extra precautions to avoid sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS.

There is typically a rise in cases of HIV infection at this time of year, said Gutiérrez.

Although the alert is a general one, there is particular concern this year over the discovery of what appears to be a new drug-restraint strain of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Health authorities in New York announced last week that a patient was diagnosed with a strain of the virus that progressed with unprecedented speed from HIV to full-blown AIDS.

As New York Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden noted, the new strain of HIV is "difficult or impossible to treat" with the usual antiretroviral drug therapies.

Although the case is still being studied, and some doubt has been raised as to whether it truly does involve a whole new strain of the virus, Mexican health authorities have stepped up prevention efforts and the monitoring of new cases of infection throughout the country, and especially in Cancún.

Alcohol and drugs tend to foster greater promiscuity and increase the spread of sexually transmitted diseases in general, Gutiérrez said.

Between 1983, when the first case of AIDS was diagnosed in Mexico, and 2004, a total of 90,043 cases of HIV infection have been reported, according to the state-run National Centre for the Prevention and Control of HIV/AIDS. Men accounted for 84 percent of the total.

It is estimated that sexual transmission is responsible for 91.4 percent of HIV/AIDS cases in Mexico, and that as many as 160,000 people may actually be living with HIV in this country of over 100 million, although many of them are not aware of it.

The state of Quintana Roo, where Cancún is located, still has a relatively low incidence of HIV/AIDS, ranking 23rd among the country’s 31 states.

"But we mustn’t let our guard down, because the presence of large numbers of sexually active foreigners in Cancún is a major source of potential infection," Gutiérrez stated.

Cancún’s hotels, with a total capacity of some 26,000 rooms, are practically booked full this week, and between 60,000 and 100,000 visitors from the United States are expected over the coming weeks, said Eduardo Paniagua, president of the Travel Agencies Association of Quintana Roo.

The resulting revenues could reach as high as 60 million dollars, he added.

Three million tourists visit Cancún every year, drawn by its white sandy beaches, turquoise waters and hot sunny climate. For the "spring breakers", however, one of its biggest attractions is the raucous nightlife.

While some locals complain about the noise and public disturbances created by this non-stop party atmosphere, most of Cancún’s inhabitants make their living from the tourism industry, and are thus willing to put up with the inconvenience because of the income it represents.

The renowned resort was founded in 1970 as part of the so-called "Mayan Riviera" project, encompassing 150 kilometres of almost untouched Caribbean beaches and numerous archaeological sites with pre-Columbian Mayan ruins.