Health
HealthIntensive handwashing promotion can reduce diarrheal and respiratory disease incidence. To determine whether less intensive, more scalable interventions can improve health, we evaluated a school-based handwashing program. We randomized 87 Chinese schools to usual practices: standard intervention (handwashing program) or expanded intervention (handwashing program, soap for school sinks, and peer hygiene monitors). We compared student… Read more
Much is written about Africa today, and much of it is not hopeful. Daily, the world hears stories of disease, despair, and death. Such a litany of misery is not unfounded—but there are also stories of hope, promise, and potential. They too are a critically important part of the complex story of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)… Read more
South Africa’s National Integrated Plan for Early Childhood Development (ECD) 2005–2010 builds on existing public programmes with the aim of ensuring that all children aged 0–4 years can access a comprehensive range of quality services. In this article, Linda Biersteker assesses how the NIP has worked in practice and draws lessons for implementation that can… Read more
This feature story highlights Mexico’s exemplary poverty fighting program, Oportunidades, which used results-based financing methods for a decade to help 25% of the population improve their health, nutrition and educational status. Research documenting the program’s results shows how using CCTs raised incomes and changed behavior.
The objective is to evaluate the impact of Oportunidades, a large-scale, conditional cash transfer programme in Mexico, on birthweight. The programme provides cash transfers to low-income, rural households in Mexico, conditional on accepting nutritional supplements health education, and health care. The primary analyses used retrospective reports from 840 women in poor rural communities participating in… Read more
Our earlier studies on Ugandan children surviving cerebral malaria showed cognitive deficits mainly in attention and memory. We now present the first study in sub-Saharan Africa to investigate the feasibility and potential benefits of computerized cognitive rehabilitation training on neuropsychological and behavioural functioning of children surviving cerebral malaria. A randomized trial in which 65 children… Read more
In considering African health care practice, it is usual to draw strong distinctions between biomedical and traditional practices, and between public and private health institutions. Whilst distinctions between traditional and biomedical, and between public and private medicine make sense from the vantage point of health professionals, we question how far these distinctions are pertinent in… Read more
Two separate smallpox outbreaks, each associated with exposure at the sick-bed and at the funeral ceremony of a smallpox victim, occurred in Sierra Leone in 1968. The first epidemic was comprised of 12 cases in 5 villages, while the second involved 146 cases in 38 villages. The immunity levels of both communities were similar. Both… Read more
For Guerzé, there is no natural death; every disease has a supernatural cause and the first thing the patient does is not taking any medication known to be effective, but to consult the Soothsayer, who will reveal who cast the spell, how to fight the spirit and what sacrifice is needed. If everything fails and… Read more
The study analyzes the traditional beliefs and practices concerning leprosy of the Limba people of Sierra Leone. It shows that this dialectally diverse ethnic group has two views of leprosy and its cause, and two varieties of stigma associated with the disease. The Limba have abandoned their traditional treatments for leprosy in response to an… Read more
This is a chapter on Kissi Funerals in the region of Guekedou and Kissidougou. Whilst this is based on fieldwork conducted in 1945-6, many of the ritual practices and meanings were current and observed in Kissi villages in 1991-3. For the Kissi, every life has three critical moments: birth, initiation, death. The primary role of… Read more