A great read no matter how urban you are

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	• Where There Is No Doctor David Werner Macmillan Education, 1993 - 500 pages average customer review:based on 57 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A great read no matter how urban you are

I first ran into this book when I was sharing a dorm room with two young women training to be health missionaries in South America. If you plan on going to any developing country in the near future, it is a must-read. I especially like the matter-of-fact treatment in the book of abortion and family planning. Abortion is not a good thing; but having women bear children they don't want and can't support is worse.

While the authors don't mention it, this book also has more relevance than you might think to the problems of health care in the developed countries. We're so used to high tech medicine in the U.S. that we forget medicine is subject to a very steep curve of diminishing returns. Most of the benefits of modern medicine come from the first few dollars spent on people's health; precisely what is addressed in this book. For all the billions we spend on U.S. health care, sickness and death are still with us and always will be. Spending all that money doesn't necessarily translate into better or happier lives. We would be wise to keep this in mind when we are trying to rein in our out-of-control costs in Medicare and health insurance. This book also has something to teach the citizens of developed countries on the subject of faith healers, remedies for the common cold, dietary supplements with exaggerated claims of health benefits, and the like: don't waste your money.

The book does have some weaknesses. For example, the authors emphasize that many rural village families have many children as a way of providing for their old age. I don't see how a large family can provide old age benefits to anyone if they are all starving together on a plot of land too small to support them.

Overall, though, a great book.

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Kmart version of a good book.

Groundwood paper pages make this a disposable version of the same book published in the U.S. on more durable paper.

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Very clear - and influential

UPDATE: Last time I was home in 2006, my friend who's a nurse in a district hospital in the middle of nowhere (in Pahang state in the middle of west Malaysia; they see a lot of Orang Asal tribal patients with malnutrition) came to visit and I lent it to her. I think she really liked it because she didn't want to return it, but my parents wanted it back because it's an "heirloom" of sorts. So I got her her own copy of the latest edition.

This was one of my favourite books as a child because I've always been interested in the biomedical sciences. Seriously, the text and diagrams are straightforward enough for a six-year-old to understand, an important thing in developing countries where literacy varies. One of the things it addresses well is the importance of both combating superstition among rural people and the need for the healthcare worker to do so without being arrogant. It's probably had a big influence on my decision to study infectious diseases.

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Useful in Africa

I read this book years ago while posted in Gabon with the Peace Corps. Since I was 5hrs (by car) from the nearest western doctor, this book was indispensible. It was also useful to show to African friends and those curious about the English language or western medicine.

My only complaint is that the book could use better (more detailed) pictures.

Great Book!

I borrowed this book from a friend who had used it while in the jungles of South America. It helped me diagnose myself as having a kidney infection and push the doctors to treat me (they didn't believe me before hand.) I actually live in an urban area of California, but was unfortunately limited to using the Kaiser-Permanente medical system (which is basically like having no doctor.)

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

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