Farmer, Paul

Farmer, Paul
▪ 2005

      By 2004 anthropologist, epidemiologist, and public-health administrator Paul Farmer had spent more than two decades and more than 4.8 million km (3 million mi) in the air shuttling between Boston—where he served as an attending physician in infectious diseases and chief of the division of Social Medicine and Health Inequalities at the Brigham and Women's Hospital—and Cange, Haiti. In Haiti he demonstrated, almost single-handedly, that multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB) could be treated cost-effectively among the poor in a country with few resources and had determined that the progression of MDR TB could be halted only if the poor were given adequate resources as well as medication.

      Paul Edward Farmer was born in 1959 in North Adams, Mass. His father moved the family often. While living in Birmingham, Ala., the family purchased a bus for family vacations, but the vehicle became their permanent home for five years after they moved to Brooksville, Fla. He won a full scholarship to Duke University, Durham, N.C., from which he graduated (1982) summa cum laude. In 1990 Farmer earned both an M.D. and a Ph.D. in anthropology from Harvard University.

      He was still a student when he began touring North Carolina tobacco plantations, where Haitians toiled in severe circumstances. After graduating from Duke, he visited the Krome detention center in Miami, Fla., and began protesting U.S. immigration policies that returned Haitian refugees home but welcomed Cuban refugees. In 1983 Farmer helped establish a community-based health project in Cange, and four year later he cofounded Partners in Health (PIH) to support clinics, schools, and training programs for medical outreach workers in impoverished countries. His work in Haiti led to the thesis of his 1992 book AIDS and Accusation. The following year Farmer was awarded a MacArthur Foundation fellowship and donated the prize money to PIH for the formation of the Institute for Health and Social Justice.

      In 1994 Farmer adopted a community-based model, akin to the one in Haiti, for treating disease and securing residents' access to health care in Carabayllo, a Peruvian shantytown. Two years later PIH and its Peruvian partner, Socios en Salud, developed a successful scheme for treating drug-resistant TB patients. In 1999 the World Heath Organization appointed Farmer and PIH worker Jim Yong Kim to launch international MDR TB treatment programs and establish effective antibiotic delivery. Following a $44.7 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to PIH and Harvard Medical School to fund MDR TB research, Farmer established individualized drug-therapy programs for patients in Haiti, Peru, and Russia.

      Farmer, who also served as professor of medical anthropology at Harvard Medical School, published numerous books and was the winner of the 2003 Heinz Award for the Human Condition. A biography of Farmer, Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder, appeared in 2003.

Karen J. Sparks

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Paul Farmer — (né le 26 octobre 1959 à North Adams (en) dans le Massachusetts) est un médecin anthropologue américan. Il est professeur d anthropologie de la santé au département de médecine sociale à l université Harvard. Son travail fait l… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Paul Terry (dessinateur) — Paul Terry (animateur) Pour les articles homonymes, voir Paul Terry et Terry. Paul Terry est un animateur, producteur, scénariste et réalisateur américain né le 19 février 1887 à San Mateo, Californie (États Unis), décédé le 25 octobre 1971 à New …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Paul terry (animateur) — Pour les articles homonymes, voir Paul Terry et Terry. Paul Terry est un animateur, producteur, scénariste et réalisateur américain né le 19 février 1887 à San Mateo, Californie (États Unis), décédé le 25 octobre 1971 à New York (États Unis). C… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Paul Terry — Paul Houlton Terry (* 19. Februar 1887 in San Mateo, Kalifornien; † 25. Oktober 1971 in New York City, New York) war ein US amerikanischer Trickfilmzeichner. Terry war als Regisseur und Produzent zwischen 1915 und 1955 für mehr als 1300 Cartoons… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Paul David Wellstone — Paul Wellstone Paul David Wellstone (* 21. Juli 1944 in Washington D. C.; † 25. Oktober 2002 in Eveleth, Minnesota) war ein US amerikanischer Politiker und Mitglied der Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor Party. Von …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Paul Terry — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Paul H. Terry (19 de febrero de 1887 en San Mateo, California, Estados Unidos 25 de octubre de 1971 en Nueva York, Estados Unidos) es un caricaturista, guionista, director y productor estadounidense. Produjo cerca de …   Wikipedia Español

  • Paul Thomson (botanist) — Paul Thomson (June 29, 1916 May 31, 2008) was an American exotic fruit enthusiast, self taught botanist, fruit farmer and the co founder of the California Rare Fruit Growers Association, a group of amateur horticulturists which now has more than… …   Wikipedia

  • Paul Follenius — Paul Follen (* 5. Mai 1799 in Gießen; † 3. Oktober 1844 in Dutzow, Missouri, USA; auch: Paul Follenius) war ein deutschamerikanischer Rechtsanwalt, Schriftsteller und Farmer. Sein Vater war der Justizbeamte Christoph Follenius, (1759–1833), seine …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Farmer & Brindley — was a firm of architectural sculptors and ornamentalists based in London, founded by William Farmer (1825 1879) and William Brindley (1832 1919), who contributed to some of the greatest structures of the Victorian era.The firm, located on… …   Wikipedia

  • Farmer Al Falfa — (also known as Farmer Alfalfa), the quintessential grizzly old farmer type, is an animated cartoon character created by American cartoonist Paul Terry. He first appeared in 1916 in a series a shorts produced by the John R. Bray Studios. After… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”