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| Title: | Management of childhood illnesses among the Tumbuka of Rumphi District in northern Malawi |
| Author: | Munthali, Alister C. |
| Year: | 2001 |
| Periodical: | The Society of Malawi Journal |
| Volume: | 54 |
| Issue: | 2 |
| Pages: | 43-65 |
| Language: | English |
| Notes: | biblio. refs. |
| Geographic terms: | Malawi Central Africa |
| Subjects: | Tumbuka child health diseases Medicine, Nutrition, Public Health Medicine, Preventive vaccination children Tumbuka (African people) |
| External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/29779072 |
| Abstract: | This study, based on interviews held in 2000 in Rumphi District (northern Malawi) among the Tumbuka of Traditional Authority Chikulamayembe, examines what the people in the rural areas of Malawi consider to be the most dangerous diseases for their children and how they try to treat and prevent these diseases. It pays attention to illnesses associated with malaria; malnutrition; diarrhoea and coughs (believed to be caused by parents' sexual intercourse); measles; and conjunctivitis. Treatments include the use of government health facilities, the purchase of medicines from shops, and the simultaneous use of biomedicine and traditional treatment. Vaccination; adherence to food taboos; isolation of people with particular illnesses; and observation of taboos on sexual intercourse are preventive measures. The results of the study show that although belief in the supernatural causation of disease still abounds, the Tumbuka in general are engaged in empirical truths only they cannot explain these in biological terms. Bibliogr. [ASC Leiden abstract] |
