PEDIATRICS Vol. 84 No. 1 July 1989, pp. A66
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IN REPLY

The facts in your Jan. 4 page-one article "Folk Healers Stay Popular with Poor in Rural Southwest" would be very amusing if the healers would be able to limit themselves to patients whose ailments are terminal, psychosomatic or nonexistent. Unfortunately, people ascribe to the healers the knowledge to make a differential diagnosis between a curable disease and one that is not. What healers have in common is the capacity to manipulate people, and they use many of the medical, social or political resources for themselves and for the people with whom they interact. They take voters to the polls to benefit the candidates who share their views.