The health conditions in San Pablito are influenced by a number of factors: The first is the family and community economy. Adults generally work either at crafts, farming or housework and ideally share the labor between family members. It is when this structure breaks down that severe malnutrition occurs. The food that has been available up until recently was fresh and locally grown. There are a number of fruit trees that grow around the town, and corn, peanuts and coffee have were grown nearby until crafts replaced farming as a source of income. The rise in the acceptance of processed food has run parallel to an increase in diabetes and respiratory diseases.Very few fruits and vegetables are sold in San Pablito, since the trip over the unpaved road tends to spoil them, and this factor prohibits the sale of wider varieties of vegetables. The diet consists of mainly tortillas, beans, coffee, some cheese or a little chicken or pork, chiles, peanuts and cilantro. The unpaved roads, humidity and moulds, lack of garbage disposal services, and difficult water and sanitation conditions also affect health here. In general, however, people are healthier than one would expect in these conditions.

At the clinic there is only one doctor and one nurse. They are constantly in short supply of he most necessary basics, such as penicillin, cough medicine, aspirin, antihistamines or an oxygen tank. Since the patients know the government's social security plan is supposed to supply their medicine free of cost, they become mistrustful when they are told that there is none and that they have to buy their own. The local hospital is an empty facade that was built to buy votes, so patients from San Pablito must go to Metepec, over three and a half hours away (with a good vehicle.)

Would you like to volunteer at the clinic? If you are nurse, a doctor or a health educator, we would love to have you. Please get in touch at 52-776-34014 or kering@earthlink.net.