Illness-related practices for the management of childhood malaria among the Bwatiye people of north-eastern Nigeria
Abstract Background A wide range of childhood illnesses are accompanied by fever,, including malaria. Child mortality due to malaria has been attributed to poor health service delivery system and ignorance. An assessment of a mother's ability to recognize malaria in children under-five was carr...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:1aa9282acc174857911c236739d938d7 2023-05-15T15:10:53+02:00 Illness-related practices for the management of childhood malaria among the Bwatiye people of north-eastern Nigeria John Kauna K Akogun Oladele B 2005-02-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-2875-4-13 https://doaj.org/article/1aa9282acc174857911c236739d938d7 EN eng BMC http://www.malariajournal.com/content/4/1/13 https://doaj.org/toc/1475-2875 doi:10.1186/1475-2875-4-13 1475-2875 https://doaj.org/article/1aa9282acc174857911c236739d938d7 Malaria Journal, Vol 4, Iss 1, p 13 (2005) Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Infectious and parasitic diseases RC109-216 article 2005 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-2875-4-13 2022-12-31T05:01:01Z Abstract Background A wide range of childhood illnesses are accompanied by fever,, including malaria. Child mortality due to malaria has been attributed to poor health service delivery system and ignorance. An assessment of a mother's ability to recognize malaria in children under-five was carried out among the Bwatiye, a poorly-served minority ethnic group in north-eastern Nigeria. Methods A three-stage research design involving interviews, participatory observation and laboratory tests was used to seek information from 186 Bwatiye mothers about their illness-related experiences with childhood fevers. Results Mothers classified malaria into male (fever that persists for longer than three days) and female (fever that goes away within three days) and had a system of determining when febrile illness would not be regarded as malaria. Most often, malaria would be ignored in the first 2 days before seeking active treatment. Self-medication was the preferred option. Treatment practices and sources of help were influenced by local beliefs, the parity of the mother and previous experience with child mortality. Conclusion The need to educate mothers to suspect malaria in every case of febrile illness and take appropriate action in order to expose the underlying "evil" will be more acceptable than an insistence on replacing local knowledge with biological epidemiology of malaria. The challenge facing health workers is to identify and exploit local beliefs about aetiology in effecting management procedures among culturally different peoples, who may not accept the concept of biological epidemiology. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Malaria Journal 4 1 13 |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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English |
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Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Infectious and parasitic diseases RC109-216 |
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Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Infectious and parasitic diseases RC109-216 John Kauna K Akogun Oladele B Illness-related practices for the management of childhood malaria among the Bwatiye people of north-eastern Nigeria |
topic_facet |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Infectious and parasitic diseases RC109-216 |
description |
Abstract Background A wide range of childhood illnesses are accompanied by fever,, including malaria. Child mortality due to malaria has been attributed to poor health service delivery system and ignorance. An assessment of a mother's ability to recognize malaria in children under-five was carried out among the Bwatiye, a poorly-served minority ethnic group in north-eastern Nigeria. Methods A three-stage research design involving interviews, participatory observation and laboratory tests was used to seek information from 186 Bwatiye mothers about their illness-related experiences with childhood fevers. Results Mothers classified malaria into male (fever that persists for longer than three days) and female (fever that goes away within three days) and had a system of determining when febrile illness would not be regarded as malaria. Most often, malaria would be ignored in the first 2 days before seeking active treatment. Self-medication was the preferred option. Treatment practices and sources of help were influenced by local beliefs, the parity of the mother and previous experience with child mortality. Conclusion The need to educate mothers to suspect malaria in every case of febrile illness and take appropriate action in order to expose the underlying "evil" will be more acceptable than an insistence on replacing local knowledge with biological epidemiology of malaria. The challenge facing health workers is to identify and exploit local beliefs about aetiology in effecting management procedures among culturally different peoples, who may not accept the concept of biological epidemiology. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
John Kauna K Akogun Oladele B |
author_facet |
John Kauna K Akogun Oladele B |
author_sort |
John Kauna K |
title |
Illness-related practices for the management of childhood malaria among the Bwatiye people of north-eastern Nigeria |
title_short |
Illness-related practices for the management of childhood malaria among the Bwatiye people of north-eastern Nigeria |
title_full |
Illness-related practices for the management of childhood malaria among the Bwatiye people of north-eastern Nigeria |
title_fullStr |
Illness-related practices for the management of childhood malaria among the Bwatiye people of north-eastern Nigeria |
title_full_unstemmed |
Illness-related practices for the management of childhood malaria among the Bwatiye people of north-eastern Nigeria |
title_sort |
illness-related practices for the management of childhood malaria among the bwatiye people of north-eastern nigeria |
publisher |
BMC |
publishDate |
2005 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-2875-4-13 https://doaj.org/article/1aa9282acc174857911c236739d938d7 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
Malaria Journal, Vol 4, Iss 1, p 13 (2005) |
op_relation |
http://www.malariajournal.com/content/4/1/13 https://doaj.org/toc/1475-2875 doi:10.1186/1475-2875-4-13 1475-2875 https://doaj.org/article/1aa9282acc174857911c236739d938d7 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-2875-4-13 |
container_title |
Malaria Journal |
container_volume |
4 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
13 |
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1766341814306996224 |