The Environment of Human Parasitic Disease

Abstract

An independent commission of statesmen met in the late 1970s to consider the risks, problems and resources of the peoples of the earth. Their views and recommendations were published as a report entitled “North-South: a programme for survival”. The countries of the world conveniently, if somewhat arbitrarily, separate into those of the North, which happen to be the developed and industrialized nations, and those of the South, which are mainly the developing countries (Fig. 5.1). This division into North and South provides a useful basis for considering the distribution of infectious diseases in the world, the populations that are affected and the natural, social and economic conditions that make up the environment of human parasitic disease (Fig. 5.2).