Private Health Surveillance on Guatemalan Farms1

The health problems of populations living and working on Guatemalan farms have generally been neglected. Nevertheless, many resident farm populations are larger than the populations of some towns and villages that enjoy a health center staffed by a resident physician. Fortunately, there are now signs that in some places, at least, the situation is changing. Quite in contrast to the stereotyped “landowner” image, many farms have been taken over in recent years by strongly motivated younger men of good education who recognize the poor health and living conditions of their workers and are trying to improve them. Beginning in 1971, the author undertook to establish private programs of preventive medicine on several farms. These have all been financed by the owners, at no expense to the workers or their families. This article describes such a program on one farm, where the size of the population and the cooperation of the owner and workers provided a sound foundation for work of this kind. Most Guatemalan farms are on the country’s Pacific slope, in terrain which