Where There Is No Doctor: A Village Health Care Handbook (2025 Revision)

This medical guidebook should be in every library! It covers vital first aid, preventative health measures (like hygiene and nutrition), and an abundance of information on everything in between. The writing style is easy-to-read and the illustrations are clear. While this book is available for free digitally, it is nice to have a physical copy just in case.

If you work overseas in any "under developed" area or in mission work anywhere in the world (except US) you've got to have this book. I work in Africa and it has proven to be life-saving and eye-opening more times than I can count. Well researched, practical, well illustrated, smart, easily portable. Can't live without it.

For those who are serious about overall prepardness. In a serious collapse where one cannot count on public/professional ser vices you need to be self-sufficient. Knowledge is a powerful asset and one that relates directly to health is an asset on steroids. For me this is a no brainer to have this book as part of a knwoledge library.

I love this book. It provides a lot of information on common and not so common illnesses and how to treat them, and how not to treat them. It's written for areas where doctors are not readily available, but does assume you have access to a dr (even if walking a few days to get to one) and also assume you have access to a healthcare worker or store who has access to drugs and antibiotics. I think it's a great teaching and treating resource, and I am glad to add it to my collection. There are a few things I didn't like, but they're mostly because I like continuity and consistency, and because I constantly proofread. A few examples are a reference to find a medicine on a certain page, yet that med isn't in the book at all except on the referring page, ten a med is supposed to be on a particular page, yet it's on the following page, and treatable symptoms and illnesses have the pages for those specific things listed in parenthesis SOMETIMES. ALSO, the book promotes vaccines, which I am against. I has measles, mumps and chickenpox as a child. I also participated in the measles get together. Overall, I do recommend this book.

Firstly, if what you are looking for is a medical field manual for a survivalist fleeing from some societal collapse, this is probably not the book you want. Go get Dr. Forgey's "Wilderness Medicine" instead (also reviewed by me). This is more of a tutorial for Peace Corps types who have found themselves posted to some back of beyond, 3rd World village where their job is to help the locals set up a basic medical delivery system. As such, it IS a great book for the would-be survivalist who wants to start prepping, with lots of info on things you might not have thought of, but it is not, with a few (albeit critical) exceptions, the book that is going to save you when you are bleeding to death in the woods. While it has some basic diagnostic and therapeutic guides and instructions, it is not well organized for instant access or maximized to help the person who finds him/herself suddenly confronted with a medical emergency beyond the reach of professional help. Moreover, the size and format of the book does not commend itself to being stuffed in a "Go Bag" and you'd be better advised to use the space saved to stick in some "Top Ramen" noodles (great survival food, btw) and a bottle of "One-A-Day" vitamins (preventative medicine, you know...).There IS, however, one reason to buy this book, which more than justifies the price. In the back of the book (among the green tabbed sections), there is probably the best, easiest to comprehend and use, jargon free/BS free guide to basic medications to be had. Forget those people urging you to buy the "Merck Manual" or the "Physicians' Desk Reference" (both of which are far too big, too technical, and too jargon laden to be of assistance to the average person). Get this book, instead, and rip out those pages and put 'em in a plastic bag for inclusion in your "Go Bag". Want to know what anti-biotic to use for a lung infection? Skin infection? Urinary tract infection? This has it. It also lists (clearly and plainly, without all the stuff the pharmaceutical companies' lawyers insist be put into most of these medication guides) the contraindications to usage and the likely side-effects. It has dosages (and rules for calculating them) and prognostic guides, all concisely and clearly written for each listed medicine. SO, if you don't know when - or if - to use Tetracycline versus Ciproflaxin, then you NEED (yes, "need", in capital letters) the medication guide included here. It may also be possible to download that information (usually for a charge) from the Hesperian website. Regardless of how you get it, though, you need to get it. The rest of the book is good background reading, but the "Medication Guide" is a "MUST HAVE" (again, in capital letters).Bottomline, if you are thinking about getting into prepping or need to start prepping your medical gear and delivery system, this is a helpful, even interesting (not to say amusing - witness the sections on how to handle folk medicine superstitions and "witches") book which may give you some good ideas (and, at the least, provoke some serious thinking about the situation). If you are looking for something to save your life when you find yourself at the bottom of a cliff with a broken leg, get Forgey's book instead (actually, get Forgey's book, period and supplement it with the "Medication Guide" from this one).

This book contains tons of useful information for those "out in the field".

As a doctor with experience with healthcare in lower tech cultural areas, this is useful for professionals and laypeople with some skills. It won’t prepare you to actually be a healthcare provider, and that’s not the purpose. But great resource - think MacGyver, not med school.

This is an amazing book! I have some medical training and a lot of home medical books but this one takes the cake. Almost all of the others are what to do until you can get professional help. But what if there are no professionals around and you are on your own, now what? This book fills the gap. This book is comprehensive and easy to understand with great illustrations. It even covers doses of common meds if you have them. This is a must buy especially if you think you could possibly be on your own and without professional medical help some day.