After reviewing the wide variety of medical systems available to inhabitants of the Ivory
Coast, the results of utilization surveys of town and village residents are presented. They
support the position that the choice of therapy depends more on its accessibility than on any
characteristics of the individual patient. The accessibility of the different kinds of medicine is
analyzed in terms of time delay, cost, and communication problems, and reasons for the
inaccessibility of Western services are discussed. The choice of Western medicine is …