A higher infant mortality rate and a shorter life expectancy, coupled with a high prevalence of a variety of diseases commonly associated with malnutrition, are usually a reflection of the social conditions of poverty in a society. By arguing that apartheid formed the basis of inequality and the underlying cause of an unacceptable burden of diseases of poverty among black South Africans, the author locates these health problems within their social, economic, and political context. He argues that if health and disease are measures of the effectiveness with which human beings using scientific...