Travel notes: a Liberian medical experience.

The delivery of even the simplest form of health care has three prerequisites: a population to whom the health care can be delivered, a knowledge of the type of care to deliver, and a means of delivery. In a developing country the "who," "what," and "how" are closely related. Health can no longer be conveniently defined as the mere absense of disease. Just as important as the physical state of a person is his attitude toward that state. Health attitudes, in turn, cannot be assessed without some knowledge of the environment within which these attitudes are formed. The method of health care delivery will also influence health attitudes, and that effect need not necessarily be positive. The implication of this "interrelatedness" is that Western medicine must broaden its hitherto disease-oriented approach and adapt to the realities of different cultures. The following account is an attempt to describe some of the ways in which Western medicine has changed and is being changed in response to the demands of a developing country, in this case Liberia.