Lokale opfattelser af diarré i Baluchistan

Diarrhoea is one the most common diseases among children in rural Baluchistan and contributes to a very high child mortality rate. A study in which 60 mothers were interviewed shows that humoral theories of hot and cold food play a prominent role in local people’s beliefs about causes of childhood diarrhoea. However, data on management of diarrhoea show that the humoral balance is not redressed by intake of cold food. Instead parhaiz, a limited diet, is used as treatment. Also biomedical anti-diarrhoeal drugs are becoming popular. Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT) has a very limited popularity because the qualities ascribed to it by the local population do not fit into a humoral perception of treatment. This study from Baluchistan and other similar studies belong to a medical anthropological tradition where specific biomedical symptoms or diseases are studied. It is suggested that our understanding of how humoral theories are applied today would benefit if analysed in a wider anthropological context

ÅNDEBØRN

Helle Samuelsen: Spirit Children According to local cosmology among the Bissa of Burkina Faso, small children up to 3-4 years of age are seen as balancing between the living and the spiritual worlds. At this early stage in their lives, they are in a transitional state with a certain attachment to the world of spirits and ancestors. On the one hånd, children are considered vulnerable and thus eligible for parental protection, while on the other hånd, they are perceived as powerful in that they represent the spiritual world. This local cosmology of early childhood liminality is inscribed in children’s bodies through daily practices of preventing and treating illness. Practices for controlling bodily orifices, viewed as thresholds between inner body and the extemal world, and controlling spatial boundaries between village and bush, are important in regulating the relationship between the living and the spiritual worlds. Analytically, the body can bc seen as part of the topology where local cosmology is unfolded. The article shows how studies of daily health care practices aimed at controlling the liminality of small children contribute to understanding how local cosmology is practiced in everyday life. It is argued that although children are not studied as individual agents in this article, a focus on children gives insight into other and more general aspects of the local culture

Den Jyske Historiker 120. Historier om dansk udviklingsbistand

Anmeldes af Helle Samuelsen &nbsp

Vincanne Adams: Doctors for Democracy. Health Professionals in the Nepal Revolution

Vincanne Adams: Doctors for Democracy. Health Professionals in the Nepal Revolution. Anmeldes af Helle Samuelse

Early home-based recognition of anaemia via general danger signs, in young children, in a malaria endemic community in north-east Tanzania

BACKGROUND: Ethnographic studies from East Africa suggest that cerebral malaria and anaemia are not classified in local knowledge as malaria complications, but as illnesses in their own right. Cerebral malaria 'degedege' has been most researched, in spite of anaemia being a much more frequent complication in infants, and not much is known on how this is interpreted by caretakers. Anaemia is difficult to recognize clinically, even by health workers. METHODS: Ethnographic longitudinal cohort field study for 14 months, with monthly home-visits in families of 63 newborn babies, identified by community census, followed throughout April – November 2003 and during follow-up in April-May 2004. Interviews with care-takers (mostly mothers) and observational studies of infants and social environment were combined with three haemoglobin (Hb) screenings, supplemented with reports from mothers after health facility use. RESULTS: General danger signs, reported by mothers, e.g. infant unable to breast-feed or sit, too weak to be carried on back – besides of more alarming signs such as sleeping all time, loosing consciousness or convulsing – were well associated with actual or evolving moderate to severe anaemia (Hb ≤ 5–8 g/dl). By integrating the local descriptions of danger symptoms and signs, and comparing with actual or evolving low Hb, an algorithm to detect anaemia was developed, with significant sensitivity and specificity. For most danger signs, mothers twice as often took young children to traditional healers for herbal treatment, rather than having their children admitted to hospital. As expected, pallor was more rarely recognized by mothers, or primary reason for treatment seeking. CONCLUSION: Mothers do recognize and respond to symptoms and danger signs related to development of anaemia, the most frequent complication of malaria in young children in malaria endemic areas. Mothers' observations and actions should be reconsidered and integrated in management of childhood illness programmes

Corona krisen øger mistilliden til regeringen i Burkina Faso

COVID-19 har (endnu) ikke ramt Vestafrika i større omfang, men pandemien har alligevel påvirket hverdagslivet voldsomt og skabt uro og frustration i lande som Burkina Faso, hvor kritikken af regeringens håndtering af epidemien voksede kraftigt i løbet af foråret 2020. Med inspiration fra Giddens’ analyser af globaliseringen og hans begreber om tidslig og rumlig udstrækning undersøger vi i artiklen hvordan borgere i Bobo-Dioulasso oplevede COVID-19 og hvordan de responderede på de mange indgreb, der skulle inddæmme epidemien

TAVSHEDENS DILEMMA: Om sex, fortielse og aids i Burkina Faso

Michel Foucault har i sine analyser af forholdet mellem viden og magt beskrevet, hvordan seksualitet siden victoriatiden har været genstand for en diskursiv eksplosion. Med den globale aids-epidemi har verden oplevet endnu en højlydt italesættelse af seksualitet i det offentlige rum, ofte tilskyndet af de internationale organisationer, der finansierer oplysningsprogrammerne. Erkendelse, bekendelse og åbenhed har været grundelementer i mange hiv/aids-kampagner. Mange hivpositive i Burkina Faso foretrækker imidlertid at hemmeligholde deres diagnose, fordi de er bekymrede for familiens og de nære omgivelsers reaktion. Trods adgang til den livsforlængende medicin, der betyder, at aids ikke længere nødvendigvis er en dødelig sygdom, er det i Burkina Faso fortsat en stigmatiseret sygdom, der er forbundet med skam og frygt for døden. I denne artikel beskriver vi de dilemmaer, som fattige hiv-smittede i Ouagadougou oplever, når de skal balancere mellem tale og tavshed i forhold til aids. Baggrunden for artiklen er en række kvalitative interviews med brugere af et ngo-drevet støttecenter for hiv-smittede samt observationer og interviews med medarbejdere på centret. Frygten for social afvisning er stor, og vores informanter anvender tavshed som strategi i forsøget på at udviske den særlige status som hiv-smittet. Derved bliver forsøget på at undgå afsløring af diagnosen til en aktiv handling, der skal sikre, at den smittede fastholder sin plads i familien. Søgeord: Burkina Faso, hiv/aids, stigmatisering, kommunikation, ARV-medicin, bekendelsesstrategier &nbsp

Comments on proposed maximum levels for dioxin-like PCBs in Food. Panel on Contaminants Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food Safety

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Comments on proposed maximum levels for dioxin-like PCBs in Food. Panel on Contaminants Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food Safety

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Risikovurdering av PBDE

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