about this guide book

About this offline-enabled web app

The content sources used to build this offline-enabled web app are those freely available for download in pdf format.

We downloaded the September 2015 revision of Where There Is No Doctor PDFs and built from there.

Special thanks to David Terzano for designing this app logo.

About the original printed book

Where There Is No Doctor A Village Health Care Book

First published in 1977 by David Werner, Carol Thuman, Jane Maxwell. Original title: Donde No Hay Doctor ISBN 978-0-942364-15-6

Where There Is No Doctor is the most widely-used health care manual for health workers, educators, and others involved in primary health care and health promotion around the world.

Current edition includes updated information on malaria, HIV, and more.

In the Journal of the American Medical Association, a 2010 review said, it is still not known if the book effectively improves health.

However, in most of the world, where physicians are not available and diseases are rampant, the status quo is unacceptable.

Until better solutions are created, Where There Is No Doctor is probably a useful stop-gap measure.

Open Copyright License

Hesperian encourages you to copy, reproduce, or adapt any or all parts of this book, including the illustrations, provided that you do this for non-commercial purposes, credit Hesperian, and follow the other requirements of Hesperian’s Open Copyright License.

For certain kinds of adaptation and distribution, we ask that you first obtain permission from Hesperian.

Contact permissions@hesperian.org to use any part of this book for commercial purposes; in quantities more than 100 print copies; in any digital format; or with an organizational budget more than US$1 million.

We also ask that you contact Hesperian for permission before beginning any translation, to avoid duplication of efforts, and for suggestions about adapting the information in this book.

Please send Hesperian a copy of any materials in which text or illustrations from this book have been used.

Original Printed Edition thanks

This 2015 revision of Where There Is No Doctor has been a cooperative effort.

We thank the many users of the book around the world who have written us over the years with comments and suggestions, these have guided us in updating this information.

David Werner is the author of the original Spanish and English versions of the book.

His vision, caring, and commitment are present on every page.

Carol Thuman and Jane Maxwell share credit for most of the research, writing, and preparation of this revised version.

We are deeply grateful for their excellent and very careful work.

Thanks also to other researchers of this revised edition: Suellen Miller, Susan Klein, Ronnie Lovich, Mary Ellen Guroy, Shelley Kahane, Paula Elster, and George Kent.

For information from the African edition, our thanks to Andrew Pearson and the other authors at Macmillan Publishers.

Many doctors and health care specialists from around the world generously reviewed portions of the book.

We cannot list them all here, but the help of the following was exceptional: David Sanders, Richard Laing, Bill Bower, Greg Troll, Deborah Bickel, Tom Frieden, Jane Zucker, David Morley, Frank Catchpool, Lonny Shavelson, Rudolph Bock, Joseph Cook, Sadja Greenwood, Victoria Sheffield, Sherry Hilaski, Pam Zinkin, Fernando Viteri, Jordan Tapero, Robert Gelber, Ted Greiner, Stephen Gloyd, Barbara Mintzes, Rainer Arnhold, Michael Tan, Brian Linde, Davida Coady, and Alejandro de Avila.

Their expert advice and help have been of great value.

We warmly thank the dedicated members of Hesperian for their help in preparing the manuscript: Kyle Craven for computer graphic arts and layout, Stephen Babb and Cynthia Roat for computer graphics, and Lisa de Avila for editorial assistance.

We are also grateful to many others who helped in this book’s preparation: Kathy Alberts, Mary Klein, Evan Winslow-Smith, Jane Bavelas, Kim Gannon, Heidi Park, Laura Gibney, Nancy Ogaz, Martín Bustos, Karen Woodbury, and Trude Bock.

Our special thanks to Keith and Luella McFarland for being there when we needed them most.

For help updating this book, we thank Manisha Aryal, Elizabeth Babu, Kristen Cashmore, Marcos Burgos, Lynne Coen, Gopal Dabade, Kathy DeRemier, Dan Eisenberg, Pam Fadem, George Feldman, Virginia Feldman, Iñaki Fernández de Retana, Shu Ping Guan, Matthew Heberger, Todd Jailer, Sunil Kaul, Lisa Keller, Robert Kimsey, Erika Leemann, Dick Litwin, Malcolm Lowe, Malini Mahendra, Jane Maxwell, Susan McCallister, Gail McSweeney, Elena Metcalf, Carrie Milnes, Syema Muzaffar, Leana Rosetti, Lora Santiago, David Scollard, C.

Sienkiewicz, Maia Small, Peter Small, Melissa Smith, Linda Spangler, Sri Ranga Priya Srinivasan, Fred Strauss, Kathleen Tandy, Dorothy Tegeler, Michael Terry, Fiona Thomson, Leah Uberseder, Kathleen Vickery, Lily Walkover, Sarah Wallis, Curt Wands and Paula Worby.

Kathleen Vickery coordinated this 2015 reprint with help from Kathleen Tandy.

Artwork for this book was created by David Werner, Kyle Craven, Susan Klein, Regina Doyle, Sandy Frank, Kathleen Tandy, Fiona Thomson, Lihua Wang, and Mary Ann Zapalac.

We also thank the following persons and groups for permission to use their artwork: Dale Crosby, Carl Werner, Macmillan Publishers, the “New Internationalist”, James Ogwang, and McGraw-Hill (for drawings taken from Emergency Medical Guide by John Henderson, illustrated by Neil Hardy).

The fine work of those who helped create the original version is still reflected on nearly every page.

Our thanks to Val Price, Al Hotti, Kathleen Tandy, Max Capestany, Rudolf Bock, Kent Benedict, Alfonzo Darricades, Carlos Felipe Soto Miller, Paul Quintana, David Morley, Bill Bower, Allison Orozco, Susan Klein, Greg Troll, Carol Westburg, Lynn Gordon, Myra Polinger, Trude Bock, Roger Buch, Lynne Coen, George Kent, Jack May, Oliver Bock, Bill Gonda, Ray Bleicher, and Jesús Manjárrez.

We are grateful for financial support from the Carnegie Corporation, Flora Family Foundation, Ford Foundation, Grousebeck Family Foundation, Moriah Fund, Gladys and Merrill Muttart Foundation, Myra Polinger, the Public Welfare Foundation, Misereor, the W.K.

Kellogg Foundation, the Sunflower Foundation, the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, and West Foundation.

Finally, our warm thanks to the village health workers of Project Piaxtla in rural Mexico, especially Martín Reyes, Miguel Angel Manjárrez, Miguel Angel Alvarez, and Roberto Fajardo, whose experience and commitment provided the foundation for this book.