ANTHROP 1AA3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Sierra Leone, Abdominal Pain, Medical Anthropology
7 Sep 2016
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The 2014-15 west african ebola outbreak an anthropological perspective. My phd fieldwork on family size and contraceptive use in northern ghana. Zoonotic disease: disease passed from animals (wild or domestic) to humans. Man sells fruit bats at west african market. Sometimes bleeding from gums, nose and eyes or other orifices (in less than 50% of cases) Transmitted through contact with body fluids of infected, symptomatic people. Health care workers frequently infected while treating patients. No approved vaccine or medicine is available for ebola. Since 1976, there have only been about 20 known ebola outbreaks. Until last year, 2,357 cases and 1,548 deaths. Illness: culturally specific perceptions and experiences of health problems structural violence/structural suffering. Explains how political and economic issues lead to poverty, suffering and inequality. *individuals don"t just make healthcare decisions because of their knowledge, but make these choices within the context of their unequal access to resources and sometimes oppressive circumstances http://www. nytimes. com/2014/10/17/world/africa/because-of-ebola-ambulance-work-in-liberia- is-a-busy-and-lonely-business. html?_r=0.
