Paul Farmer

Physician, medical anthropologist

• Born: October 26, 1959
• Place of Birth: Place of birth: West Adams, Massachusetts
• Died: February 21, 2022
• Place of Death: Butaro, Rwanda

Education:Duke University; Harvard University Medical School

Significance:Paul Farmer was a physician and medical anthropologist, who committed his life to improving the health of people in Third World countries such as Haiti. His work included helping to found Partners in Health (PIH).

Background

Paul Edward Farmer was born on October 26, 1959, in West Adams in the western part of Massachusetts. The family lived there until Farmer was seven and then moved to Birmingham, Alabama. Farmer’s family included his parents and their six children. His mother was a teacher with a desire for adventure. To appease her, his father converted an old school bus into a mobile home that had electricity but no water, and the family lived in various trailer parks in Brooksville, Florida, not far from the Gulf Coast.

When Farmer’s father became a commercial fisherman, the family moved into a houseboat in the Gulf of Mexico but eventually moved the boat into an undeveloped waterway, where they used a creek for bathing. Although his living conditions were unusual, Farmer’s parents shared a passion for reading and encouraged their children to master their studies. Farmer’s grades at Hernado High School in Brooksville, Florida, were good enough to earn him a full scholarship to Duke University, where he eventually focused on medical anthropology. He also discovered that he had the ability to learn languages easily, as evidenced by his fluency in French after six months spent studying in Paris.

Farmer was inspired by the work of Rudolf Virchow (1821 – 1902), a German physician who is credited with the origins of public health medicine, and dismayed at the human cost of the raging civil war in Central America. He developed an interest in providing health care to the poor. He began visiting a migrant labor camp near the university that housed tobacco harvesters, many of whom came from Haiti. This was the second time Farmer had encountered migrant workers from Haiti—the first had been when his family spent a summer harvesting citrus fruit alongside migrants during his youth. Farmer wanted to learn more about the lives and history of the Haitian people. While waiting to hear about his post-graduate application to Harvard University’s joint degree program in medicine and medical anthropology, Farmer traveled to Haiti for the first time.

Life's Work

After visiting the poor, disease-ridden town of Cange in Haiti, Farmer returned to the United States to work out a deal with Harvard. He would travel to Harvard to complete the required laboratory work and take exams, but the rest of his education would be acquired by working with the impoverished and ill in Haiti. During his trips to the United States, Farmer began seeking funding and support for efforts to improve life for the people of Haiti.

His first effort was to establish a bakery to improve the food sources in the town. Then, he worked with Fritz Lafontant, a native-born Anglican priest, and Ophelia Dahl, a medical volunteer from England, to found a community health project called Zanmi Lasante in 1983. Two years later, with support from the Episcopal Church of Haiti and Thomas White, a Harvard graduate and World War II veteran, Farmer, Lafontant, and Dahl established the Bon Saveur Clinic in Cange.

By 1987, Farmer’s group had drawn additional support and interest. Joined by Jim Yong Kim, a Harvard medical student at the time, Todd McCormack, a friend, Farmer and his colleagues established Partners in Health (PIH). The organization’s mission is to coordinate financial resources, donations of medical supplies and equipment, and volunteer medical professionals to better serve the people of Haiti. PIH became a lifeline of support for the people of Haiti just as the first AIDS cases were being diagnosed and tuberculosis, malaria, and other diseases were running rampant in the latter part of the 1980s.

When Farmer completed his medical studies in 1990, he returned to the United States to complete a one-year residency at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. While there, he helped launch a program in the poorest areas of Boston to treat patients with HIV and tuberculosis. After completing his residency, Farmer returned to Haiti to expand the facilities at Zanmi Lasante to include schools to train future medical professionals, a blood bank, and educational services for residents.

The health care methods Farmer and his colleagues used at Zanmi Lasante proved very successful. The transmission rate of AIDS from infected mothers to infants is lower than in the United States, and the World Health Organization (WHO) uses these methods in more than thirty countries. PIH has also expanded its reach to nearly a dozen countries, including the United States. Farmer wrote several books about his work, and the story of how Farmer and his partners established PIH was told by Pulitzer Prize winning author Tracy Kidder in the 2003 bestseller Mountains Beyond Mountains.In 2009, Farmer was named the United Nations’ Deputy Envoy to Haiti by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who is the United Nations’ Special Envoy to that country.

In 2020, Farmer received the $1 million Berggruen Prize for his work in helping people see health a human right. He died on February 21, 2022, from an acute cardiac event. His death came in Butaro, Rwanda, where he was onsite at Butaro District Hospital and its associated school, University of Global Health Equity (UGHE), which he helped found in 2011 and 2019, respectively.

Impact

Farmer’s dedication to his work has made health care a reality for many people in Haiti and in other countries. In the past, in countries such as Haiti, health care had to be paid for before any treatment was rendered. Farmer’s efforts have paved the way for generations of impoverished people in the area to receive medical care regardless of their ability to pay. His method for delivering care has become a global model, and his efforts have inspired others to expand and continue his work.

Personal

Farmer married Didi Bertrand, a Haitian anthropologist, in 1996. When in the United States, they lived in Boston with their three children: daughters Catherine and Elizabeth, and son Sebastian.

Bibliography

Barry, Ellen and Alex Traub. "Paul Farmer, Pioneer of Global Health, Dies at 62." New York Times, 22 Feb. 2022, www.nytimes.com/2022/02/21/obituaries/paul-farmer-dead.html. Accessed 30 Sept. 2024.

"Cange, Haiti: History and Mission." Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, n.d. Web. 14 June 2016.

Kidder, Tracy. "The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer." All Things Considered: National Public Radio, October 2003. Web. 14 June 2016.

"Global Health Champions: Paul Farmer, MD, PhD." Rx for Survival: Public Broadcasting Corporation, n.d.. Web. 14 June 2016.

"On Rounds: Dr. Paul Farmer Accompanies UGHE Medical Students at Butaro District Hospital." Partners in Health, 27 Jan. 2022, www.pih.org/article/rounds-dr-paul-farmer-accompanies-ughe-medical-students-butaro-district-hospital. Accessed 30 Sept. 2024.

"Paul Farmer." Harvard Medical School Department of Global Health and Social Medicin, n.d. Web. 14 June 2016.

"Paul Farmer." Harvard University Department of Anthropology, n.d. Web. 14 June 2016.

"Paul Farmer." Partners in Health official website, n.d. Web. 14 June 2016.

"Paul Farmer, MD." American Academy of Achievement, n.d. Web. 14 June 2016.