Malária: percepções e procura de cuidados de saúde: caso da Cidade de Maxixe Inhambane

Abstract

The present work has as its theme Malaria: perceptions and demand for health care, whose raison d'être is due to the fact that malaria is a disease whose control depends not only on biomedical knowledge, but also on knowledge that individuals and the community have. Since the health authorities are committed to fighting and controlling this disease, betting on the active participation of the communities and, as the disease is a universal phenomenon, it is necessary to understand how the communities interpret this phenomenon. A study was carried out in the city of Maxixe, which privileged the qualitative method and the techniques of non-participant observation. Semi-structured interviews were carried out alongside informal conversations with patients, family members, healers and other informants. We observed that there are two terms to identify malaria, which are dze-dze-dze and fewere, but the most frequent and precise as to the symptoms of the disease is the first. Depending on the symptoms and precision, individuals seek care either in health centers or in alternative medicine. Empirical research has shown that families often reconcile treatments recommended by biomedicine with those of alternative medicine. The knowledge, attitudes and practices that individuals inherit or learn from past experiences, as well as socio-economic conditions, biomedical knowledge and processes of enculturation and endoculturation will dominate the decision of individuals' behavior in relation to disease and your cure. For the active participation of the popular in the fight against this disease, it is necessary to know the attitudes, beliefs, knowledge and thus, be able to work on them in order to produce some transformations regarding the currently prevailing perceptions and the significant increase in the demand for health care. (TRADUÇÃO NOSSA)