Question 4
ComprehensionJAMB 1993 Passage I: Disease patterns and medical care
The diseases afflicting Western societies have undergone dramatic changes. In the course of a century, so many mass killers have vanished that two-thirds of all deaths are now associated with the diseases of old age. Those who die young are more often than not, the victims of accidents, violence and suicide.
These changes in public health are generally equated with progress and are attributed to more or better medical care. In fact there is no evidence of any direct relationship between changing disease patterns and the so-called progress of medicine.
The impotence of medical services to change life expectancy and the insignificance of much contemporary clinical care in the curing of diseases are all obvious, well documented but well suppressed.
Neither the proportion of doctors in a population nor the quality of the clinical tools at their disposal nor the number of hospital beds is a causal factor in the striking changes in disease patterns. The new techniques available to recognize and treat such conditions as pernicious anaemia and hypertension, or to correct congenital malformations by surgical interventions, increase our understanding of disease but do not reduce its incidence. The fact that there are more doctors where certain diseases have become rare has little to do with their ability to control or eliminate them. It simply means that doctors, more than other professionals, determine where they work. Consequently, they tend to gather where the climate is healthy, where the water is clean, and where people work and can pay for their services.
Adapted from Cambridge Proficiency Examination Practice
These changes in public health are generally equated with progress and are attributed to more or better medical care. In fact there is no evidence of any direct relationship between changing disease patterns and the so-called progress of medicine.
The impotence of medical services to change life expectancy and the insignificance of much contemporary clinical care in the curing of diseases are all obvious, well documented but well suppressed.
Neither the proportion of doctors in a population nor the quality of the clinical tools at their disposal nor the number of hospital beds is a causal factor in the striking changes in disease patterns. The new techniques available to recognize and treat such conditions as pernicious anaemia and hypertension, or to correct congenital malformations by surgical interventions, increase our understanding of disease but do not reduce its incidence. The fact that there are more doctors where certain diseases have become rare has little to do with their ability to control or eliminate them. It simply means that doctors, more than other professionals, determine where they work. Consequently, they tend to gather where the climate is healthy, where the water is clean, and where people work and can pay for their services.
Adapted from Cambridge Proficiency Examination Practice
Many doctors, according to the passage, choose to live where
- A.research facilities are available
- B.they are most needed
- C.they can be near colleagues
- D.conditions are more in their favour
Show the answer and explanation
Answer: D (conditions are more in their favour)
Explanation
Doctors gather where the climate is healthy, the water is clean and people can pay them, that is, where conditions suit them.