[.ca] Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues (ISBN 0520229134)

Shining a Light:
Dr. Farmer sums up what you can hear in his lectures (he is an amazing speaker), read in journals, and hear in his interviews: The "modern day plagues" result directly from Structural Violence. I read this book for my culture and health class and could not put it down. He writes with an eloquence unheard of in most anthropologists while at the same time with the passion of a deeply concerned physician. Although in some points the book can get repetitive (as case studies overlap) it is a spectacular, enlightening read that I would recommend to anyone, particularly potential (and current) medical anthropologists.

Paul Farmer-- the Cassandra Prophet:
Anyone who has traveled to a third world country and viewed the slums and abhorrent conditions millions of people live in, with no basic sanitation or clean drinking water, will not be surprised by Dr. Paul Farmer's findings regarding the emergence of deadly pathogens in these countries. He ties the spread of AIDS in third world countries to the sex trade,an economic necessity for many young women,men and children, and the easier transmittal of the disease due to untreated STDs. His ethnographic studies of HIV positive women in Haiti, who are more likely to be partners of soldiers or truck drivers, two of the few paying professions in that country, provides another economic link to this disease. Most disturbing are his findings regarding multi-drug resistant tuberculosis,which is often a presenter disease of HIV. An estimated one third of tuberculosis cases in the US occur in someone born outside of the country, and Farmer feels that one third of the world's population harbors the tubercle bacillus, which easily emerges when someone's body is broken down by poor nutrition, other illness or a compromised immune system. The vignettes of patients he has treated and saved, or was too late to save, place an unforgettable face on these diseases. He attacks arguments against treating third world tuberculosis and HIV as morally unsound and compares the costs of military campaigns against the pittance spent on drugs that could save millions of lives. Another disturbing book- a worthy winner of the Magaret Mead Award.

Complex causality: why people are really at risk for disease:
Finally Dr. Farmer couples his lucid historical, political and economic analyses of the conditions that put the poor at risk for bad health outcomes, with a plainly indignant calling out of healthcare professionals and healthcare organizations to make honest efforts to understand and remedy conditions which would never be tolerated among the well off in Western nations. In his goundbreaking, earlier books, "AIDS and Accusations," and "The Uses of Haiti," Dr. Farmer matter of factly discusses the global and local structural conditions and misrepresentations which led to the spread of disease and persistent, dismal health conditions in Haiti. In "Infections and Inequality," Dr. Farmer adds moral overtones to incisive, sociopolitical analysis and his characteristic accounts of individuals suffering from disease. The book consequently provides a powerful reflection from a man who has worked in some of the world's poorest regions on what the benefits of medical technology mean for people who have not traditionally had access to them. A powerful, informative read that clearly reflects the years of experience of a physician who has wrestled with the global responsibility of caring for the those who are worst off. An obligatory read for anyone even thinking of working for the impoverished of the world.