Infections and Inequalities, Paul Farmer
Infections and Inequalities, Paul Farmer
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

Infections and Inequalities
The Modern Plagues

Author: Paul Farmer

Narrator: Derek Shoales

Unabridged: 11 hr 46 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 11/22/2022


Synopsis

Paul Farmer has battled AIDS in rural Haiti and deadly strains of drug-resistant tuberculosis in the slums of Peru. A physician-anthropologist with more than fifteen years in the field, Farmer writes from the front lines of the war against these modern plagues and shows why, even more than those of history, they target the poor. This "peculiarly modern inequality" that permeates AIDS, TB, malaria, and typhoid in the modern world, and that feeds emerging (or re-emerging) infectious diseases such as Ebola and cholera, is laid bare in Farmer's harrowing memoir rife with stories about diseases and human suffering.

Farmer points out that most current explanatory strategies, from "cost-effective treatment" to patient "noncompliance," inevitably lead to blaming the victims. In reality, larger forces, global as well as local, determine why some people are sick and others are shielded from risk. Farmer writes of what can be done in the face of seemingly overwhelming odds, by physicians and medical students determined to treat those in need: whether in their home countries or through medical outreach programs like Doctors without Borders. Infections and Inequalities weds meticulous scholarship in medical anthropology with a passion for solutions—remedies for the plagues of the poor and the social illnesses that have sustained them.

About Paul Farmer

Paul Farmer is cofounder of Partners In Health and chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. His books include Reimagining Global Health and To Repair the World.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Mario the lone bookwolf on March 27, 2018

Were the microorganisms only longer than the people on earth or would they stay longer? Please note that I put the original German text at the end of this review. Just if you might be interested. I would like to focus on the theoretical part of the book. Paul Farmer is a shining example of with his co......more

Goodreads review by Libby on June 14, 2013

I have some mixed feelings about this book. First of all, I've been spoiled recently by some good, readable non-fiction, and this missed that mark. He does sprinkle in personal stories to his dense discussion of health initiatives, but even those come off as clinical. I also had a hard time with his......more

Goodreads review by Andy on August 18, 2012

This is an odd book. One of the bizarre aspects is a running diatribe about the way that global health money is spent on prevention instead of on treatment. First of all, it's not either/or. Secondly, if you had to choose, why not overweight prevention, which would save more lives than treatment? Th......more

Goodreads review by Katherine on September 02, 2007

I put this in my "read" section, only because I'm never going to finish it. It's terribly written and pretentious. I'm more interested in the biography of Paul Farmer than I am of actually have to slog through his overwritten prose.......more

Goodreads review by Robyn on November 16, 2014

Fascinating book blowing many poverty and disease myths out of the water. Found this book on the Bill Gates reading list and glad I picked it up. As other reviews have stated, it might be a tad academic and scattered, but an excellent, illuminating read. I am very interested in his other books since......more