Based on the firsthand experiences of a diverse team of physicians, anthropologists, nutritionists, epidemiologists, physiologists and parasitologists, all working over the last fifteen years in the research laboratory and in the field in both rural and urban impoverished communities in Brazil's vibrant but disparately poor Northeast, the authors of this book synthesize an approach to solving the health crises that challenge us to harness technological advances for the benefit of mankind. They point out the necessity of addressing the health crises of the disadvantaged as the only effective means of controlling the population explosion without violating fundamental human rights. They note the unique opportunities that a focus on health provides for addressing the key issues of development that transcend geographic and ideologic boundaries. This book will appeal to a wide range of readers concerned with health in developing areas throughout the world. The anthropologist will learn about public health and epidemiology of tropical infectious diseases; the health professional and medical researcher will learn the importance of working in a culturally sensitive manner with existing practitioners and perceptions; and the economist will learn the issues that are key to health in 80 percent of the world's rapidly growing population who lived in the tropical, developing world. The health crises at the edge of development in Brazil's Northeast hold profound lessons for both developed and developing countries as we convulse into the 21st century, trying to bridge technology with a genuine improvement in the human condition around the world.