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Two treatments, one disease: childhood malaria management in Tanga, Tanzania
BACKGROUND: In the Tanga District of coastal Tanzania, malaria is one of the primary causes of mortality for children under the age of five. While some children are treated with malaria medications in biomedical facilities, as the World Health Organization recommends, others receive home-care or tre...
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Formato: | Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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BioMed Central
2009
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2779815/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19860900 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1475-2875-8-240 |
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author | Foster, Deshka Vilendrer, Stacie |
author_facet | Foster, Deshka Vilendrer, Stacie |
author_sort | Foster, Deshka |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: In the Tanga District of coastal Tanzania, malaria is one of the primary causes of mortality for children under the age of five. While some children are treated with malaria medications in biomedical facilities, as the World Health Organization recommends, others receive home-care or treatment from traditional healers. Recognition of malaria is difficult because symptoms can range from fever with uncomplicated malaria to convulsions with severe malaria. This study explores why caregivers in the Tanga District of Tanzania pursue particular courses of action to deal with malaria in their children. METHODS: Qualitative data were collected through interviews with three samples: female caregivers of children under five (N = 61), medical practitioners (N = 28), and traditional healers (N = 18) in urban, peri-urban, and rural areas. The female caregiver sample is intentionally stratified to reflect the greater population of the Tanga District in level of education, marital status, gender of household head, religion, and tribal group affiliation. Qualitative data were counted, coded and analysed using NVivo7 software. RESULTS: Results indicate that a variety of factors influence treatment choice, including socio-cultural beliefs about malaria symptoms, associations with spiritual affliction requiring traditional healing, knowledge of malaria, and fear of certain anti-malaria treatment procedures. Most notably, some caregivers identified convulsions as a spiritual condition, unrelated to malaria. While nearly all caregivers reported attending biomedical facilities to treat children with fever (N = 60/61), many caregivers stated that convulsions are best treated by traditional healers (N = 26/61). Qualitative interviews with medical practitioners and traditional healers confirmed this belief. CONCLUSION: Results offer insight into current trends in malaria management and have implications in healthcare policy, educational campaigns, and the importance of integrating traditional and biomedical approaches. |
format | Text |
id | pubmed-2779815 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2009 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-27798152009-11-20 Two treatments, one disease: childhood malaria management in Tanga, Tanzania Foster, Deshka Vilendrer, Stacie Malar J Research BACKGROUND: In the Tanga District of coastal Tanzania, malaria is one of the primary causes of mortality for children under the age of five. While some children are treated with malaria medications in biomedical facilities, as the World Health Organization recommends, others receive home-care or treatment from traditional healers. Recognition of malaria is difficult because symptoms can range from fever with uncomplicated malaria to convulsions with severe malaria. This study explores why caregivers in the Tanga District of Tanzania pursue particular courses of action to deal with malaria in their children. METHODS: Qualitative data were collected through interviews with three samples: female caregivers of children under five (N = 61), medical practitioners (N = 28), and traditional healers (N = 18) in urban, peri-urban, and rural areas. The female caregiver sample is intentionally stratified to reflect the greater population of the Tanga District in level of education, marital status, gender of household head, religion, and tribal group affiliation. Qualitative data were counted, coded and analysed using NVivo7 software. RESULTS: Results indicate that a variety of factors influence treatment choice, including socio-cultural beliefs about malaria symptoms, associations with spiritual affliction requiring traditional healing, knowledge of malaria, and fear of certain anti-malaria treatment procedures. Most notably, some caregivers identified convulsions as a spiritual condition, unrelated to malaria. While nearly all caregivers reported attending biomedical facilities to treat children with fever (N = 60/61), many caregivers stated that convulsions are best treated by traditional healers (N = 26/61). Qualitative interviews with medical practitioners and traditional healers confirmed this belief. CONCLUSION: Results offer insight into current trends in malaria management and have implications in healthcare policy, educational campaigns, and the importance of integrating traditional and biomedical approaches. BioMed Central 2009-10-27 /pmc/articles/PMC2779815/ /pubmed/19860900 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1475-2875-8-240 Text en Copyright ©2009 Foster and Vilendrer; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Research Foster, Deshka Vilendrer, Stacie Two treatments, one disease: childhood malaria management in Tanga, Tanzania |
title | Two treatments, one disease: childhood malaria management in Tanga, Tanzania |
title_full | Two treatments, one disease: childhood malaria management in Tanga, Tanzania |
title_fullStr | Two treatments, one disease: childhood malaria management in Tanga, Tanzania |
title_full_unstemmed | Two treatments, one disease: childhood malaria management in Tanga, Tanzania |
title_short | Two treatments, one disease: childhood malaria management in Tanga, Tanzania |
title_sort | two treatments, one disease: childhood malaria management in tanga, tanzania |
topic | Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2779815/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19860900 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1475-2875-8-240 |
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