Plague is a virulent zoonosis reported most commonly from Sub-Saharan Africa. Early treatment with antibiotics is important to prevent mortality. Understanding knowledge gaps and common behaviors informs the development of educational efforts to reduce plague mortality. Methods A multi-stage cluster-sampled survey of 420 households was conducted in the plague-endemic West Nile region of Uganda to […]
Local health care
Within a health system, the different sources of care and advice people visit and trust when they are sick and the policies which influence them.
32 documents
A Rapid Qualitative Assessment of Oral Cholera Vaccine Anticipated Acceptability in a Context of Resistance Towards Cholera Intervention in Nampula, Mozambique
While planning an immunization campaign in settings where public health interventions are subject to politically motivated resistance, designing context-based social mobilization strategies is critical to ensure community acceptability. in preparation for an Oral Cholera Vaccine campaign implemented in Nampula, Mozambique, in November 2016, we assessed potential barriers and levers for vaccine acceptability. Questionnaires, in-depth interviews, and […]
Attitudes towards Zika Virus Infection among Medical Doctors in Acehprovince, Indonesia
Zika virus (ZIKV) infection, a public health emergency of international concern, has recently been confirmed in Indonesia. However, to date, there has been no study to assess how prepared healthcare workers in Indonesia are to confront this emerging infectious disease. The aim of this study was to assess the attitudes of medical doctors in Indonesia […]
Health Seeking Behaviour Among Suspected Cases of Cholera in Cameroonian Health Districts in Lake Chad Basin
Cholera outbreaks are recurrent in Cameroon and despite the efforts put together during epidemics, they are always associated with a high case fatality. Inadequate demand for health care is one of the major factors that might be responsible for the high case fatality. This study was conducted to describe the health seeking behaviour of suspected […]
Ebola Through a Glass, Darkly: Ways of Knowing the State and Each Other
The Ebola epidemic unfolded in radically divergent manners in two neighboring villages in Sierra Leone, with one recording 40 cases and 20 deaths and the other recording zero cases, though they are located only 100 meters apart. Presented with identical information about Ebola’s cause and modes of transmission, one chief reacted by attempting to shield […]
The First Mile: Community Experience of Outbreak Control during an Ebola Outbreak in Luwero District, Uganda
A major challenge to outbreak control lies in early detection of viral haemorrhagic fevers (VHFs) in local community contexts during the critical initial stages of an epidemic, when risk of spreading is its highest (“the first mile”). In this paper we document how a major Ebola outbreak control effort in central Uganda in 2012 was […]
Understanding Social Resistance to the Ebola Response in the Forest Region of the Republic of Guinea: An Anthropological Perspective
Why did Ebola response initiatives in the Upper Guinea Forest Region regularly encounter resistance, occasionally violent? Extending existing explanations concerning local and humanitarian “culture” and “structural violence,” and drawing on previous anthropological fieldwork and historical and documentary research, this article argues that Ebola disrupted four intersecting but precarious social accommodations that had hitherto enabled radically […]
Culture and Health
Planned and unplanned migrations, diverse social practices, and emerging disease vectors transform how health and wellbeing are understood and negotiated. Simultaneously, familiar illnesses-both communicable and non-communicable-continue to affect individual health and household, community, and state economies. Together, these forces shape medical knowledge and how it is understood, how it comes to be valued, and when […]
Camel Milk, Amoxicillin, and a Prayer: Medical Pluralism and Medical Humanitarian Aid in the Somali Region of Ethiopia
This paper details how exposure to new clinics, diagnostic technologies, and pharmaceuticals during humanitarian relief operations in the Somali Region of Ethiopia shaped local pluralistic health systems and altered the ways in which residents subsequently conceived of and treated illness and disease. Despite rising demand for pharmaceuticals and diagnostic technologies among Somalis in Ethiopia, local […]
Comparing Sociocultural Features of Cholera in Three Endemic African Settings
Cholera mainly affects developing countries where safe water supply and sanitation infrastructure are often rudimentary. Sub-Saharan Africa is a Cholera hotspot. Effective Cholera control requires not only a professional assessment, but also consideration of community-based priorities. The present work compares local sociocultural features of endemic Cholera in urban and rural sites from three field studies […]
