David Sanders: um gigante do Movimento pela Saúde dos Povos

Abstract

Sent by my mother, as a gift, on the eve of my departure to work on a humanitarian mission in Angola. Revisiting the book, 14 years later, I reread some excerpts that have marked me so much. Just at that moment, when I was wondering exactly what the author of the book was about to explain: Why do people, especially children, still die in large numbers throughout the world, from wholly preventable diseases? Why is that appropriate provision for health care is not available to every individual in the world? What changes can be made to improve the situation 1(7) ? On the following pages, the preface ends with a 'slap in the face', a call to action: "For too long health has been widely looked upon as an issue apart from the real problems of society. The time has come to redress the balance" 1(12). Written in 1984 in Harare, Zimbabwe, signed by D.M.S. It was David M. Sanders. But who was this person, who wrote things so true, so assertively and unequivocally? An African pediatric doctor who seemed to know very well what he was talking about. Following the next pages, many dramatic photos, of severely malnourished children, of families living in inhuman conditions, slums, garbage, lack of sanitation, people working at risk in the informal market. David wrote about the association of the harmful consequences of social injustices in people's health. It made us understand how health status is so directly influenced by living conditions, which in turn are affected by political and economic issues. He talked about the social determinants of health. The answers to the initial questions were in the structural causes of illness, which went far beyond the provision of health services, and that was what David spoke about with such firmness and propriety. It was exactly what I needed to read to reaffirm the feeling of indignation at the unacceptable inequalities in health. It all made sense. I went to Angola, stayed a year and returned to Porto Alegre. With the same concerns and an even greater sense of indignation. It was 2007, I started my doctorate in epidemiology, always inspired by what I had read in David's book. Until then, for me, he was a distant reference for a doctor, writer and teacher. Until my advisor, Bruce Duncan, another role model for a committed researcher, who shared the same view regarding the structural causes of disease, one day told me that he wanted to invite Professor David Sanders to be one of the speakers at the International Epidemiology Congress, that would take place the following year in Porto Alegre.