Farmer Talks Health Care

Partners In Health founder Paul E. Farmer discussed his non-profit healthcare organization’s involvement in the developing world yesterday afternoon at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Farmer, a professor of social medicine at Harvard Medical School, spoke alongside two other medical experts about the intimate connection between poverty and disease and the need for intervention at a much broader scope.

“It’s not fair for people to be able to starve in the 21st century when there’s such affluence,” said Farmer.

During the two-hour discussion, the panelists talked on topics ranging from gender equity in Rwanda to the controversy of declaring that basic sustenance a human right.

Farmer described plans that governments can pursue in order to maximize their health care potential and better assist the poor.

The internationally acclaimed professor colored his account with anecdotes and images, interspersing them throughout his presentation.

At one point, he characterized an emaciated man on screen as “suffering from the two diseases you’d expect, malaria and tuberculosis, [and] suffering from a third disease, poverty.”

Farmer emphasized that comprehensive health care would have to come alongside socioeconomic support, saying more political will is necessary for the future success of such endeavors.

He pointed out that access to education, job creation, housing, and other basic necessities is crucial to sustaining the benefits provided by Partners In Health.

“The link of disease and poverty is proven,” said Agnes Binagwaho, another panelist and the executive secretary of Rwanda’s National AIDS Control Commission.

To strengthen her claims, she presented maps that portrayed the size of continents based on malaria and HIV prevalence and deaths, along with income.

Jim Y. Kim—a professor of medicine who worked with Partners in Health at its founding—moderated the event.

Despite the gravity of the topics discussed, the mood was lightened by the wry and witty humor of the panelists—particularly Farmer, who in one instance referred to Princeton University as “a small, community-based organization in New Jersey.”

Farmer and the other panelists received a warm reception from the audience.

“It was awesome,” Matthew F. Basilico ’08 said succinctly.