Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Eradicating the root cause


We still continue to take a piecemeal approach to treating disease on a case-by-case basis, but this approach is doomed to fail in the long run. Let's take the example of bronchitis. At present, we treat only those individuals who are suffering from the disease. However, a social approach to treating bronchitis would focus on removing those factors in the environment which are known to cause or aggravate bronchitis, such as air pollution, poor working conditions, industrial pollution and cigarette smoking. While the modern medical system is designed to look after ill patients, we cannot improve the health of our community without taking concerted political action!

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