Presentation
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Joaquín
Cravioto died in Mexico City on April 9th 1998 at the age
of 76. The time elapsed since that date has let us appreciate
the importance of his work, and the great loss that his
physical disappearance involves. |
His contributions
to science and health in Mexico were fundamental and can be
resumed in five points:
1. He was
a pioneer who researched on the relationship between childhood
malnutrition and mental development.
2. He highlighted the importance of this health problem and
the responsibility of society to eradicate it.
3. He emphasized the root of malnutrition as a dysfunction of
society and its subsequent social injustice.
4. He made first-magnitude scientific contributions, along with
the Child Malnutrition Study Group and the Children Hospital
of Mexico, such as systematization of clinical diagnosis ("cuadro
clínico") and the nutritional recovery syndrome.
5. He was one of the pillars in the development and modernization
of pediatrics in Mexico and Latin America.
With this
book, the Mexican Foundation for Health (Funsalud), through
the Nestle Nutrition Fund, has decided to honor doctor Cravioto's
memory. Testimonies of academic and scientific personalities
that knew him and had various experiences with him are recovered
in this book. Each of the collaborations here throws light on
different facets of his personality and work. Besides honoring
and remembering Joaquín Cravioto, this memory-recovering
work has the purpose of recreating a specially brilliant moment
in Mexican medical science.
Publishing
this book was possible thanks to the editorial efforts of Pedro
Arroyo, Mario Mandujano and Alejandro Cravioto, the support
of the Technical Committee of Funsalud's Nestle Nutrition Fund
and the economic contribution of Nestlé México,
S.A. de C.V.
Guillermo
Soberón
Executive Chairman
Mexican Foundation for Health
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