In a recent blog I revisited Ivan Illich's essay on the dangers of the medical profession to the health of the population. From the BMJ news this week is an interesting report: Disease awareness campaigns turn healthy people into patients. We need to be careful. the the medical marketplace can detract from the public health message.
The conference on disease mongering, held in Newcastle, Australia, was timed to coincide with a theme issue of the journal PLoS Medicine, published by the US Public Library of Science (PLoS).
April's issue of PloS (US Public Library of Science) Medicine carries 11 peer reviewed articles on disease mongering, which is defined by this month's guest editors as "the selling of sickness that widens the boundaries of illness and grows the markets for those who sell and deliver treatments."
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