Throwback Thursday: Remembering ‘Where There is No Doctor’

On today’s Throwback, I am remembering that book that served as the internet back in the days when health concerns arose. I believe many of you are familiar with the book named ‘Where there is no doctor’.

That book was in almost every home I visited while I was growing up. Unlike today when any symptom we notice in our body, we quickly hit Google and some other health websites, back in the days, any symptom parents noticed, they flipped open Where There is No Doctor. It somehow had answers to majority of health questions and offered cures.

The book according to Wikipedia is the most widely used health education book in tropical and sub-tropical developing countries. The book was originally written by David Werner, Carol Thuman, Jane Maxwell  in 1970 in Spanish as Donde No Hay Doctor and has since then been revised multiple times. It has sold over one million copies and has been translated into over 100 languages. It has also been made into a CD and some portions of it can be downloaded free of charge in pdf format.

In the book, you will be sure to find covered all aspects of people’s health ranging from Diarrhea to Malaria, skin diseases, bone fractures, open wounds and a lot more. The 512 paged book places special emphasis on hygiene, a healthy diet and vaccinations. It also explains very well how to prevent, recognize and treat many common sicknesses. The new revised version of the book has additional information on health problems such as AIDS, complications from abortion, birth and family planning and a host of other new illnesses.

I remember then, my mum always had that book cello taped whenever we dared tear off a piece of it. It was the most read book in our home and I particularly liked that it had images to drive home points made in it. The images most of the time will show an illness and how to go about curing it. Even though the images were not works of a perfect artist, but at least they were clearly understood.

One of the many images drawn in the book

Today, technology has changed a lot of things making the internet the first point of call when we worried about our health. Technology may have taken over, but Where There is No Doctor served and may still be serving its purpose in some parts of the world today. Till date, our copy of this book still lies nestled in our library as I am sure some others do.

I remember this image of the boy eating snake... Yuk!

Tell me, do you remember this book?