Viruses, Plagues, and History

Natural History, Sept, 1998 by Paul Farmer

Part of the difference in the tone of these books lies in the topics chosen. Watts takes on some of the failures (malaria control being the classic example) not even considered by Oldstone. Watts's account rings truer, because the control of infectious diseases has been, in many senses, a failure--especially from the viewpoint of the world's poor. Watts compares the causes of death among the wealthiest fifth of the world's population with those afflictions that kill the poorest fifth. While only 8 percent of deaths among the world's wealthiest are caused by infections and maternal and perinatal mortality, fully 56 percent of all deaths among the poor are caused by these conditions, with infectious diseases at the head of the list.

Paul Farmer is an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, where he directs the Program in Infectious Disease and Social Change. A physician-anthropologist, he divides his clinical time between Haiti's Clinique Bon Sauveur and Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital. He is the author of AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame, The Uses of Haiti, and the forthcoming Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues.