The Social Epidemiology and Burden of Malaria in Bali Nyonga, Northwest Cameroon

Authors

  • N. V. Pemunta Central European University, Budapest

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/hcs.2013.69

Keywords:

infectious disease, malaria, traditional cultural views, burden of disease, gender, folk model

Abstract

Malaria is an infectious disease caused by the anopheles mosquito that kills at least one million people in Sub-Saharan Africa every year, leading to human suffering and enormous economic loses. This paper examines the complex web of cultural, poor socio-economic conditions and environmental factors for the prevalence of malaria in Bali Nyonga. The study outlines and assesses the multiple notions of malaria causation with dirty environment (80.76%) and the mosquito (76.92%) as the leading causes. Other causes are poor hygiene (46.15%), impure sources of portable water (23.08%), malnutrition (15.38%), witchcraft (11.54%), human-vector contact (34.61%),and palm wine drinking (32.69%).It reveals  that any effective management of malaria must be based on an understanding of traditional cultural views and insights concerning the cause, spread and treatment of the disease, as well as gender roles within a given community since women bear a greater  burden of the disease than men. This study further  underscores the need to incorporate folk theories of disease causation, gender and malaria issues into malaria control strategies in order to improve their coverage and effectiveness in different contexts.

Author Biography

N. V. Pemunta, Central European University, Budapest

Ngambouk V.Pemunta taught at the  School of Pubic Health Medicine and Population Studies, University College Dublin. Hitterto obtaining his Ph.D, he was a consultant in the non-profit sector in both Cameroon and Hungary.He is author of Health and Cultural Values:Female Circumcision within the Context of HIV/AIDS in Cameroon(2011) and Human Rights and Culture:Socio-legal Resistance to Female Genital Cutting(2011)

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Published

2013-05-17

Issue

Vol. 4 No. 1 (2013): Ways of Seeing: Causes and Beliefs

Section

Articles

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