Medical technology in developing countries: useful, useless, or harmful?

Abstract

The point of this discussion is to consider the role of a medical in the context of the socioeconomic factors considered to be important in bringing about a rapid decline in death rates in developing countries. Included in the technology are all those factors affecting health that could be altered by medically trained personnel or by individuals in communities who understand the potential for change and have the will to take action. This will include personal and community preventive measures treatment of disease and control of the environment through sanitation or other measures such as family planning. Tremendous distortions of priorities in both the industrialized and developing countries have obscured abundant evidence that there are important identifiable areas in which medical efforts have made significant contributions to reduction of mortality and morbidity. The case of tuberculosis provides an illustrative example. Family planning practiced in moderation has a social value beyond the significant health benefits it can produce. The health benefit to mother and child of widely-spaced children is established and women have a right to access to fertility control methods. The family planning is extremely simple and can be combined with almost any health system but a village-based system works better. In several developing countries rapid expansion of integrated appropriate health services on a national scale has been associated with dramatic reduction of death rates particularly among the 1-4 year age group.