Clinical research participants often express concerns about blood draw because of misconceptions about the uses to which the blood will be put. Their comments can generate rumours in their communities, thereby affecting rates of recruitment to research studies and increasing losses to follow-up. This study sought to identify community perceptions about blood draw for clinical […]
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Distinguishing Social and Cultural Features of Cholera in Urban and Rural Areas of Western Kenya: Implications for Public Health
Urban and rural areas have distinctive health problems, which require consideration. To examine sociocultural features of Cholera and its community context, a semi-structured explanatory model interview based on vignettes depicting typical clinical features of Cholera was used to interview 379 urban and rural respondents in Western Kenya. Findings included common and distinctive urban and rural […]
Improving Community Coverage of Oral Cholera Mass Vaccination Campaigns: Lessons Learned in Zanzibar
Recent research in two Cholera-endemic communities of Zanzibar has shown that a majority (94%) of the adult population was willing to receive free oral Cholera vaccines (OCVs). Since OCV uptake in the 2009 campaign reached only 50% in these communities, an evaluation of social and cultural factors and of barriers was conducted to understand this […]
Epidemics and Resistance in Colonial Sierra Leone during the First World War
Regional and global disease epidemics, which followed in the wake of the First World War, became the crucial tipping point in the balance between resistance and accommodation that had been established between the British colonial administration and newly colonized people of the Sierra Leone Protectorate. From 1915 to 1919, a smallpox epidemic and the global […]
Governing Epidemics in an Age of Complexity: Narratives, Politics and Pathways to Sustainability
This paper elaborates a ‘pathways approach’ to addressing the governance challenges posed by the dynamics of complex, coupled, multi-scale systems, while incorporating explicit concern for equity, social justice and the wellbeing of poor and marginalised groups. It illustrates the approach in relation to current policy challenges of dealing with epidemics and so-called ’emerging infectious diseases’ […]
Infection Control During Filoviral Hemorrhagic Fever Outbreaks: Preferences of Community Members and Health Workers in Masindi, Uganda
Interviews were conducted with health workers and community members in Masindi, Uganda on improving the acceptability of infection control measures used during an Ebola outbreak. Measures that promote cultural sensitivity and transparency of control activities were preferred and should be employed in future control efforts. We suggest assessing the practicality of body bags with viewing […]
Costs for Households and Community Perception of Meningitis Epidemics in Burkina Faso
Bacterial meningitis in the African meningitis belt remains 1 of the most serious threats to health. The perceptions regarding meningitis in local populations and the cost of illness for households are not well described. We conducted an anthropologic and economic study in Burkina Faso, in the heart of the meningitis belt. Respondents reported combining traditional […]
Biocommunicability and the Biopolitics of Pandemic Threats
In this article we assess accounts of the H1N1 virus or “swine flu” to draw attention to the ways in which discourse about biosecurity and global health citizenship during times of pandemic alarms supports calls for the creation of global surveillance systems and naturalizes forms of governance. We propose a medical anthropology of epidemics to […]
The SARS-Associated Stigma of SARS Victims in the Post-SARS Era of Hong Kong
This article explores the disease-associated stigma attached to the SARS victims in the post-SARS era of Hong Kong. The author argues that the SARS-associated stigma did not decrease over time. Based on the ethnographic data obtained from 16 months of participant observation in a SARS victims’ self-help group and semistructured interviews, The author argues that […]
Socio Cultural Perceptions of Communities in Kassena-Nankana District of Upper East Region towards Cerebro Spinal Meningitis
Perceptions of the causes of Cerebrospinal Meningitis, its treatment and prevention, as well as reasons for the blatant refusal by some sections of the communities to vaccinate against the disease in the wake of the big epidemic of the meningitis belt (1996-1997) to which the district falls, were investigated. About 150 knowledgeable people of various […]
