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Perceptions of symptoms of severe childhood malaria among Mijikenda and Luo residents of Coastal Kenya

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

H. A. Mwenesi ,
T. Harpham ,
K. Marsh  and
R. W. Snow
H. A. Mwenesi
Affiliation:
Medical Research Centre, Kenyan Medical Research Institute, Nairobi Kenyan Medical Research Institute, Coastal Unit, Kilifi, Kenya
T. Harpham
Affiliation:
Public Health and Policy Department, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Oxford
K. Marsh
Affiliation:
Kenyan Medical Research Institute, Coastal Unit, Kilifi, Kenya Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, Oxford University, Oxford
R. W. Snow
Affiliation:
Kenyan Medical Research Institute, Coastal Unit, Kilifi, Kenya Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, Oxford University, Oxford
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Summary

Effective community based malaria control programmes require an understanding of current perceptions of malaria as a disease and its severe manifestations. Quantitative and qualitative surveys of mothers on the Kenyan Coast suggest that fever is conceptualised in biomedical terms whereas the aetiology of severe malaria is perceived to be of more complex cultural origin. This is reflected in the treatments sought for convulsions. The results are discussed in the context of ethnographic factors. To be effective, future health information programmes must take cultural beliefs into account.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 27 , Issue 2 , April 1995 , pp. 235 - 244
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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