Medicos Aventureros, pages 123-178 Summary and Analysis

Farmer educated Kidder about the importance of epidemiological maps. These maps display two relative populations—those who live long, healthy lives, and those who die significantly sooner, primarily due to disease, malnutrition, and poor health care. Countries and even cities are divided among the two populations. Countries with generally low incomes sometimes have aristocratic, wealthy areas where health abounds. The opposite is also true, industrialized nations sometimes have pockets—admittedly small—of high disease and death rates. Because of these exceptional areas, one cannot assume that low income counties will automatically have citizens of poor health. In Haiti, it is true that poor health and poverty coexist. Of the illnesses that plague its inhabitants, tuberculosis is a major concern. Tuberculosis was rare in much of the world thanks to relatively low cost...