Science & technology

A poor diagnosis

Giving developing countries better access to expensive, life-saving drugs has become a rallying cry among the rich. But treatment is hard unless you know what you are treating

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EVERY day, thousands of people in poor countries are condemned to death without due process or a thorough investigation of their cases. If this were a miscarriage of justice, then human-rights activists would be up in arms. But it is a miscarriage of medicine instead, and until recently it has passed largely unnoticed by outsiders.

This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “A poor diagnosis”

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