Mountains Beyond Mountains Seminar
October 11, 2007
Alba Amaya-Burns, MD
Reading:
Kidder, Tracy. Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man
Who Would Cure the World. New York: Random House, Inc. 2003
Discussion Points:
1. Dr Paul Farmer as special human being, dedicated, social conscious professional
who despite living and working with all state of the art resources and facilities,
have decided to dedicate his live to the most disadvantage population in the
Americas and in Africa.
2. Dr Farmer’s legacy to the new generations of health professionals and
anthropologist is unique in our society. He brought us information on health
disparities that occur in developing countries, but also he motivates us to look
inside our country and the burden of the health disparities that occur also here in
The United States.
3. Dr Farmer tried to resolve the health problems in Peru by providing health care to
communities, when he found Multi Drug Resistance TB patients with no
treatment, he looked for drugs using whatever means he found, no matter if he has
to stole some drug from his hospital in The United States and pass them
throughout Peruvian Custom risking his own safety and freedom.
4. In Public Health, there are scientifically sound interventions and programs that we
can use to guarantee a sustainable solution to the health problems. Solutions
where different actors of the society and government need to be involved.
Sometimes is very tough because of government corruption or lack of
understanding what to prioritize, but our job as Public Health practitioners is to
advice and convince them what to do to succeed. There are examples of
successful programs and interventions in developing countries that we can use as
lesson learned in other countries.
5. When I met Dr Farmer, I told him that I am very proud of him, that when I read
his books, which I use as reference in my classes, I remember dozens of Paul
Farmer I met in El Salvador, who die, because they protest and denounce human
rights abuse from the health system during the civil war. He was moved and he
responded that he is fortunate, because he can speak and write and nobody will
kill him because the conditions here are different as were in El Salvador.
6. How El Salvador became an international model for tuberculosis program.
Political decisions, donor’s involvement, community involvement, the Global
Fund grant, my role in USAID.
7. How El Salvador now is recognized by The World Health Organization as the
only country in the region that is implementing the 2007-2015 Stop TB and WHO
strategy. The University of Florida is proposing to create in El Salvador a Center
of Excellence for TB training in Central America.
8. Q & A