Crucial Role of Medico-Anthropological Factors in Management of Pandemics: A Historical Analysis
Keywords:
Pandemic, medical anthropology, Ebola, Cholera, global health
Abstract
As the entire planet grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a disproportionate attention on finding an effective vaccine and pharmacological agents that would provide us with the armamentarium to take on the offending virus. However, when we look at the historical management of infectious pandemics, it becomes very clear that any effective strategy to contain a pandemic of the nature that we are confronted with now would necessarily have to factor in the medical anthropological dimension.
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3. Manguvo A, Mafuvadze B. The impact of traditional and religious practices on the spread of Ebola in West Africa: time for a strategic shift. Pan Afr Med J. 2015;22(Suppl 1):9.
4. World Health Organization [Internet]. African traditional medicine day. [2010 Sep 12]. Available from: https://reliefweb. int/report/world/african-health-monitor-special-issueafrican- traditional-medicine
5. BMC [Internet]. When culture meets epidemic: the case of Ebola. On Medicine. [2015 Apr 23] Available from: https:// blogs.biomedcentral.com/on-medicine/2015/04/23/cultureebola/
6. Hewlett BS, Hewlett BL. Ebola, culture, and politics: the anthropology of an emerging disease. Belmont: Cengage Learning; 2007.
7. Jones J. Ebola, emerging: the limitations of culturalist discourses in epidemiology. J Glob Health. 2011; 1: 1-68. IASC. Mental health and psychosocial support in Ebola virus disease outbreaks. 2015. [ Cited 2018 Sep 10]. Available from: http://www.who.int/mental_health/emergencies/ebola_ guide_for_planners.pdf
9. Faregh N, Kemo S, Tounkara A. Rethinking the role of culture in mental health after the Ebola epidemic [Internet]. The Lancet Global Health Blog. 2016 Nov 4. [Cited 2018 Sep 1]. Available from: http://globalhealth.thelancet. com/2016/11/04/rethinking-role-culture-mental-health-after- ebola-epidemic
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11. Grimaud J, Legagneur F. Community beliefs and fears during a cholera outbreak in Haiti. Intervention. 2011;9(1):26–34.
12. Coltart CE, Lindsey B, Ghinai I, Johnson AM, Heymann DL. The Ebola outbreak, 2013–2016: old lessons for new epidemics. Phil Trans R Soc B. 2017;372(1721):20160297.
13. Southall HG, DeYoung SE, Harris CA. Lack of cultural competency in international aid responses: the Ebola outbreak in Liberia. Front Public Health. 2017;5:5.
14. WHO. Ebola response: what needs to happen in 2015. 2015. [Cited 2018 Aug 30]. Available from: http://www.who.int/ csr/disease/ebola/one-year-report/response-in-2015/en/.
Published
2020-12-24
How to Cite
Dr. Ashoka Jahnavi Prasad. (2020). Crucial Role of Medico-Anthropological Factors in Management of Pandemics: A Historical Analysis. The Indian Practitioner, 73(12), 7-9. Retrieved from https://articles.theindianpractitioner.com/index.php/tip/article/view/1096
Section
Editorial
