Medical Anthropology

Hội chứng QT dài (Long QT Syndrome, LQTS) bẩm sinh là bệnh lý rối loạn kênh ion di truyền, đặc trưng là kéo dài thời gian tái khử cực thất và đột tử. Chúng tôi báo cáo 1 trẻ nam 5 tháng tuổi, tiền sử gia đình có anh trai và chị gái đột tử, có triệu chứng mệt thỉu và có khoảng QT hiệu chỉnh (corrected QT, QTc) 548ms trên điện tâm đồ. Xét nghiệm gen phát hiện đột biến gen SCN5A kiểu dị hợp tử (NM_000335.4: c.1231G>A, NP_000326.2: p.Val411Met). Bệnh nhi được chẩn đoán LQTS loại 3 và được xếp vào nhóm nguy cơ cao. Bệnh nhi được điều trị bằng propranolol với liều khởi đầu 1 mg/kg/24 giờ, sau đó tăng lên 1,5 mg/kg/24 giờ, kết hợp tránh sử dụng thuốc và thức ăn làm kéo dài khoảng QTc. Sau 7 tháng điều trị, trẻ dung nạp tốt, không có triệu chứng với khoảng QTc giảm còn 474ms. Thành công bước đầu này gợi ý hiệu quả của chiến lược chẩn đoán và điều trị LQTS dựa trên phân tầng nguy cơ, sử dụng thông tin lâm sàng, điện tâm đồ và xét nghiệm gen.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to report findings from interviews with seven African-heritage women attending a female genital mutilation (FGM) Clinic in the north of England, during the COVID-19 lockdown. The Clinic, established several years before the pandemic, provides specialist therapeutic support to women and girls from minority ethnic communities who are affected by harmful “traditional” practices, including FGM. The services provided by the Clinic include early interventions, peer support, community engagement and empowerment around FGM. Design/methodology/approach Data was collected during an online focus group discussion with seven women who had received counselling for FGM, to gain insight into their lived experiences of therapeutic support during the pandemic. Findings Using Braun and Clarke (2006) six-step thematic analysis, four superordinate themes derived from the data: consistency and continuity; safety in shared experience and creativity; feeling heard, feel...

Kidney selling is a global phenomenon engraved by poverty and governance in low-income countries with the higher-income countries functioning as recipients and the lower-income countries as donors. Over the years, an increasing number of residents in a village near the capital city of Nepal have sold their kidneys. This study aims to explore the drivers of kidney selling and its consequences using ethnographic methods and multi-stakeholder consultations. An ethnographic approach was used in which the researcher lived and observed the residents’ life and carried out formal and informal interactions including in-depth interviews with key informants, community members and kidney sellers in Hokse village, Kavrepalanchok district. Participants in the village were interacted by researchers who resided in the village. In addition, remote interviews were conducted with multiple relevant stakeholders at various levels that included legal workers, government officers, non-government organizat...

This study deals with the changing occupations of Sherpa people who has been recognized as 'high altitude porter' for their courage in climbing difficult mountains. After having a lot of in person formal/informal conversation, focus group discussion and in field observations for 15 days with heterogeneous people in Khumbu region of Nepal, the study tried to find reasons of distractions of younger generation in maintaining their ancestral professions. Narrative interview has been conducted with Sherpa mountaineers, business persons, porters, young students and teachers. An effort has been made to analyze the issues of Sherpa community people through cognitive dissonance theory developed by Leon Festinger in 1957. It employs thematic analysis in three categories of participants – professional mountaineers, business people (age: 20 to 35) and high school students (age: 16 to 20) and findings have been discussed under theoretical and policies perspectives. The findings show that...

The objective of this article is to present and discuss, from ethnographic data, how people who performed organ transplants reconstruct their trajectories and social relationships by incorporating an ethic of conduct marked by biomedical parameters, privileging, for that, not only the fact to receive a transplant, but to live with a transplanted organ over time. The body of the transplanted individual must be produced daily, the target of constant vigilance and continuous action. After surgery he will be responsible for maintaining the tenuous balance between his body and the donated organ, administering rejection, which involves changes in behavior, lifestyle and self-care. This health care highlights the question of "how to live" that is, of the different ways of conducting life, placing the individual in a complex field of interpersonal relationships.O objetivo deste artigo é apresentar e discutir, a partir de dados etnográficos, como pessoas que realizaram transplantes...

Based on O'odham calendar sticks, the paper recounts the 1851 yellow fever epidemic that afflicted the Hia-Ced O'odham. In addition to looking at the disease through the lens of an O'odham theory of sickness, there is a reflection on how O'odham notions of "history" differ substantially from the concept of history that defined federal Indian policy during the mid-nineteenth century.

Este ensaio analisa conflitos e potencialidades das Ciências Sociais e Humanas em Saúde (CSHS) no campo da Saúde Coletiva e os desafios de atuar em uma área interdisciplinar. Inicialmente, apresentamos algumas particularidades das CSHS, dialogando com tensões internas. Em seguida, as metodologias qualitativas e seus usos nas pesquisas em Saúde Coletiva são problematizadas, mantendo um diálogo com as demais áreas. Por fim, apresentamos uma reflexão sobre as perspectivas futuras das CSHS e possíveis caminhos teórico-metodológicos que aprofundariam a transversalidade da área. Repensar as relações entre as áreas provoca uma reflexão sobre uma possível e oportuna reconfiguração da própria Saúde Coletiva. Os desafios nos colocam a necessidade de repensar a noção de CSHS; e de indagar sobre a linguagem que estamos construindo e sobre o que podemos fazer.

O fenomeno de jovens trabalhadores bolivianos de ambos os sexos que migram para a cidade de Sao Paulo em busca de melhores condicoes de vida, tem sido determinado principalmente pela possibilidade de encontrar trabalho e remuneracao melhores do que aqueles encontrados em seu pais de origem. A maior parte dos imigrantes desconhece as condicoes que trabalho que encontrarao no destino, sendo a costura, muitas vezes, a unica opcao de trabalho viavel quando da chegada ao destino, tendo garantia, tambem, de morada, alimentacao e remuneracao. Os imigrantes, e em alguns casos seus filhos, vivenciam varios problemas de saude gerados pelas precarias condicoes de higiene, saude e trabalho presentes nas oficinas de costura. Uma parte importante dos imigrantes nao frequenta os centros de saude para tratar seus problemas devido ao desconhecimento sobre os servicos, medo, barreiras linguisticas e, principalmente, porque nao podem interromper a jornada de trabalho sob risco de diminuicao da renda a...

Resumo Os recentes processos migratórios internacionais ocorridos no Brasil se apresentam como um campo de estudo para as ciências sociais e humanas em saúde. Este artigo tem como objetivo refletir sobre os processos de inclusão de imigrantes e refugiados pelas instituições de saúde, considerando o campo de debates das ciências sociais e humanas em Saúde e o comprometimento dessa área com os direitos humanos. Inicialmente, são apresentadas características contemporâneas das migrações internacionais, incluindo a situação brasileira. Em seguida, são descritas algumas pesquisas e práticas sobre concepções de saúde, doenças e cuidados com imigrantes e, por fim, propomos um debate acerca de alguns conceitos antropológicos que podem contribuir para uma abordagem menos estereotipada dos processos de inclusão nas instituições de saúde nacionais. Pretendemos apresentar uma perspectiva das ciências sociais e humanas em saúde em um horizonte teórico articulado com práticas em saúde que, de cer...

This essay re-examines the global beauty culture and ideals as established by the West and continually re-imagined worldwide through three primary lenses of race, gender, and political economy. Based on this understanding, it then delves into how the beauty culture in Vietnam has been shaped and transformed since the country conducted economic reforms in 1986 and has become more integrated into the global economy today.

Menstruation is an absolute natural-normal biological process of adolescents though it is unfortunately accompanied with different taboos in the society of Bangladesh. A significant number of adolescent girls have considerable lacuna of knowledge on menstruation as well as menstrual hygiene management. Thus, the aim of the study is to know how the issue of menstruation is presented on TV advertisement and what roles TV advertisements play in shaping the knowledge, attitude, and practice of girls and their parents on menstruation and menstruation hygiene management. Both content analysis and questionnaire survey have been used to present the realities of the role of TV advertisement in menstrual hygiene management process in Bangladesh. At present, about 70 percent girls are inspired to use sanitary napkin watching TV advertisement. TV advertisements play vital role to break the shackle of menstrual taboo and also provide essential information about menstruation as well as menstrual ...

Many countries have reported supply shortages of antibiotics in recent years. The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked interesting discussions among government officials, public health practitioners, and scholars on how to maintain the security of the global pharmaceutical supply chain and how to decrease dependency on countries such as China. This article discusses the experiences and initial findings of tracing global pharmaceutical supply chains through pharmaceutical trade fairs and events at multiple locations. I argue that the reasons behind antibiotic supply shortages are multifold. Although the geographical concentration of the production of key raw materials and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) in China is considered the main reason for the unstable and disrupted supply chain, it is also important to recognize that the same forces that have driven Western pharmaceutical companies to shift some of their less profitable manufacturing lines to China are also challenging Chinese pharmaceutical companies to adjust and reorient their strategies. As such, antibiotics are facing a conundrum in which the governance of excessive use is complicated by a shortage problem that hampers access to essential drugs.

El objetivo del artículo es analizar el proceso de secularización de la atención a los moribundos, tomando como eje el devenir del movimiento de los hospices y los cuidados paliativos. El artículo repasa el surgimiento del movimiento de los hospices, de marcada inspiración religiosa, y el posterior desarrollo de la medicina paliativa como disciplina médica especializada en la atención de pacientes en el final de la vida. A partir de una revisión de fuentes bibliográficas y de investigaciones en curso, el artículo analiza el proceso de secularización de este movimiento, sosteniendo que este proceso no remite meramente a un cambio de contextos y de especialistas en la atención de los pacientes moribundos (del hospice al hospital, de los voluntarios al equipo profesional multidisciplinario) sino a la reapropiación de las esferas y temas propuestos en la filosofía del cuidado de los hospices por parte de un dispositivo médico y científico.The aim of this article is to describe the proce...

Background: Desired conception is an important process among families in Africa, particularly when married. Many women have desired to conceive at their matrimonial homes but find it difficult to actualize their plans. This study was carried out to x-ray the determinants of delayed, desired conception among reproductive women of Port Harcourt. Materials & Method: This is a cross-sectional study involving 50 women who are within their reproductive period with age range 18-24years, 25-31years, 32-37years, 38-43years and 44-49years. A well structured self administered questionnaire was issued to each participant. Results: Data was analyzed with SPSS version 26 and Excel and P value < 0.05 was considered significant. The study shows that most women though married had delay in conception and this was predominant in women between 32-37years and 38-43years. Major factors implicated in causing delay to conception include uterine fibroid, alcohol consumption, abortions, contraceptive use ...

Background Using antibiotics without a prescription is potentially unsafe and may increase the risk of antimicrobial resistance. We evaluated the effect of patient, health system, and clinical encounter factors on intention to use antibiotics without a prescription that were (1) purchased in the United States, (2) obtained from friends or relatives, (3) purchased abroad, or (4) from any of these sources. Methods The survey was performed January 2020–June 2021 in 6 publicly funded primary care clinics and 2 private emergency departments in Texas, United States. Participants included adult patients visiting 1 of the clinical settings. Nonprescription use was defined as use of antibiotics without a prescription; intended use was professed intention for future nonprescription antibiotic use. Results Of 564 survey respondents (33% Black and 47% Hispanic or Latino), 246 (43.6%) reported prior use of antibiotics without a prescription, and 177 (31.4%) reported intent to use antibiotics wit...

Đặt vấn đề: Kháng sinh là liệu pháp điều trị chính trong viêm phổi cộng đồng (VPCĐ) ở trẻ em. Hiện nay, vi khuẩn gây VPCĐ thường có tỷ lệ đa kháng thuốc cao; do đó cần cập nhật tình hình sử dụng kháng sinh nhằm quản lý, đảm bảo sử dụng an toàn và hiệu quả. Mục tiêu: Phân tích tình hình sử dụng các liệu pháp kháng sinh đơn trị và phối hợp, hiệu quả điều trị và các yếu tố liên quan đến hiệu quả điều trị VPCĐ ở trẻ em 2 – 60 tháng tuổi. Đối tượng và phương pháp nghiên cứu: Mô tả cắt ngang, hồi cứu 360 bệnh án bệnh nhi từ tháng 09/2018-09/2019. Kết quả: Liệu pháp đơn trị nhóm betalactam chiếm ưu thế (92.6%). Trong các đơn trị, amoxicilin có tần suất sử dụng cao nhất (25,2%). Liệu pháp phối hợp betalactam và macrolid chiếm tỷ lệ cao nhất (53,7%) so với các phối hợp khác. Tỷ lệ bệnh nhân được chỉ định kháng sinh có liều và nhịp đưa thuốc phù hợp với các hướng dẫn lần lượt là 81,4% và 94,4%. Hiệu quả điều trị VPCĐ trong vòng 48-72 giờ đầu thành công đạt 89,2%. Tiền sử bệnh, mức độ viêm phổ...

This article has only one aim: to demonstrate the urgency for contemporary medical anthropology of a direct and reflexive reading of the works of Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937). Gramsci’s dialogic and experimental way of thinking seems to elude all the interpretive classifications furnished by the exegetes or by anthropological theory. The author of this article lays stress on Gramsci’s anthropological vocation and explores three main questions: hegemony, agency, and transformations of the person. There is a dramatic and reflexive attention in Gramsci for the bodily esperience of suffering, for the embodiment processes, and at the same time an “engaged observation”, which can be called ethnographic, of the the microphysics of social transformation, the hegemony and the agency of the State, the person, and the collectivity. The Gramscian critique can push contemporary medical anthropology to lay stress on the political aspects of embodiment in order to put into question the health-illne...

This study uses historical and anthropological perspectives to analyze the dynamic nature of cultural interpretations of senile dementia among modern Japanese. In our discussion of "distorted medicalization", we point out discrepancies between the biomedical practices of doctors and what most Japanese conceptualize as the preventable and curable nature of senile dementia.

The right to live in the community is fundamental and is directly related to the possibility of independent living for persons with disabilities, a central principle of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), ratified by Bulgaria in 2012. The opposite of these principles is living in an institution, and being compelled to reside in a space where one does not have the ability or one is not allowed to exercise control over one’s life and day-to-day decisions. Through oral history and anthropological reconstructive analysis, with a special focus on the cultural contexts and social meanings of personal experience, we explore how families of children with disabilities are simultaneously victims of the local disabling legacies, environments and practices, and key agents that effectuate and perpetuate institutional culture. We highlight the dynamics and interactions of the traumatic images on the legacy of state socialism, the actual barriers during the transit...

What is race? And how does it figure in different scientific practices? To answer these questions, I suggest that we need to know race differently. Rather than defining race or looking for one conclusive answer to what it is, I propose methods that are openended, that allow us to follow race around, while remaining curious as to what it is. I suggest that we pursue generous methods. Drawing on empirical examples of forensic identification technologies, I argue that the slipperiness of race-the way race and its politics inexorably shift and change-cannot be fully grasped as an "object multiple." Race, I show, is not race: The same word refers to different phenomena. To grasp this, I introduce the notion of the affinity concept. Drawing on the history of race, along with contemporary work in forensic genetics, the affinity concept helps us articulate the way race indexes three different realities: race as object, race as method, and race as theory. These three different, yet interconnected realities, contribute to race's slipperiness as well as its virulence.

By focusing on the anthropology of disease, the paper suggests some new research avenues within the field of gender in Byzantium. Gynaecological manuals from the second to seventh centuries A.D. serve as the basis for research in which the author attempts to comprehend how philosophy and social mores affected the interpretation of the gendered body – both male and female. In addition, the cultural foundations of certain diseases and the social implications of what was defined as pathology and what as health are emphasized. Medicine was the only scientific discipline in antiquity and the Byzantine period that welcomed women, and as such, it offers a vast array of potential research avenues pertaining to the lived experiences, health, and sexuality of women.

Uvod: Simulacije se kot aktivna metoda učenja in poučevanja uporabljajo tako v formalnem kot neformalnem usposabljanju strokovnjakov na področju zdravstva, vendar je njihov potencial v Sloveniji premalo izkoriščen. Cilj raziskave je bil ugotoviti, katere simulacije zanimajo vodilne medicinske sestre, ki odločajo o usposabljanjih medicinskih sester. Metode: V anketi, ki je potekala od 30. 11. do 24. 12. 2010, so sodelovale vodilne medicinske sestre primarne, sekundarne in terciarne ravni zdravstvene dejavnosti ter socialnovarstvenih zavodov. Končni vzorec je zajemal 78 anketirancev. Anketiranci so med 146 simulacijami, razdeljenimi v enajst sklopov, izbrali tiste, ki bi jih glede na njihovo naravo dela potrebovali in bi jih bilo smiselno vključevati v programe vseživljenjskega učenja. Za analizo podatkov je bila uporabljena univariatna analiza in test hi-kvadrat. Rezultati: Rezultati kažejo izjemno veliko zanimanje za simulacije stanj, ki zahtevajo nujno obravnavo pacienta, še zlasti...

Ageing is a process of physical, psychological and social change in multi dimensional aspects. Ayurveda, the Indian traditional holistic health science has got the potential for prevention of diseases by promotion of health and management of diseases occurring in old age. It has a focused branch called Rasayana (Rejuvenation) which deals with the problems related to ageing and methods to counter the same. Geriatrics or Jaracikitsa or Rasayana in Ayurveda is a unique therapeutic methodology to delay ageing and to minimize the intensity of problems occuring this degenerative phase of one's life. Prevention and management of health problems could help the elderly to improve quality of life and remain self dependant for their daily activities to maximum possible extent. Ayurveda and other traditional Indian health systems lay emphasis on preventing the diseases. Elaborate description is available on personal hygiene encompass diet and regimen during daily routine (dinacarya), season...

Coriandrum sativum is a promising functional food which not only provides nutrition, but also has medicinal benefits. It is a widely grown herb and most commonly used spice in India. Total phenolic and flavonoid content of ethanolic extracts of coriander leaves at different temperatures were evaluated to determine the effect of thermal processing on potential health benefits of coriander. The leaves were subjected to boiling (100°C) as well as storage at refrigerated temperature (4°C). A qualitative phytochemical screening was performed for the presence of phytochemicals. The ethanolic extracts were analyzed for total phenolic content using Folin-Ciocalteau assay and Flavanoid content by Aluminium chloride method. The extracts of fresh leaves showed the highest total phenolic and flavonoid content, which reduced significantly after treatment 100°C.Refrigeration also results in reduction of total phenolic and flavanoide content. This indicates that certain bioactive compounds such as...

Despite extensive descriptive work on intimate partner violence (IPV) among Latina and Caribbean immigrant women (LCIW), culturally appropriate interventions for primary and secondary prevention of IPV for this population remain lacking. Developing culturally appropriate and effective prevention interventions for abused LCIW requires a more nuanced understanding regarding the dynamics of cultural values, immigration status, and manifestations of IPV. The purposes of this study were to examine LCIW's experiences of domestic violence, using a gender stereotype framework, and to describe how ascribing to gender stereotypes perpetuates and normalizes experiences of abuse. Thirty semistructured individual interviews were conducted with LCIW (a) who were at least 18 years old and (b) who had experienced abuse from an intimate partner within the last 2 years. Overall, women described themselves as communal-being caretakers, submissive, and dependent on men. From their perspective, they...

Le groupe d'étude national sur le suicide au Canada suggère que les personnes qui vivent un deuil suite à un suicide forment un groupe à risque suicidaire. La littérature rapporte que ces endeuillés ont un taux de suicide neuf fois plus élevé que la population générale. Des auteurs suggèrent que ce type de deuil est plus intense et plus long que d'autres formes de deuil, constat que d'autres ont remis en doute. Qu'en est-il? Le deuil suite à un suicide est-il différent? S'agit-il d'une expérience unique de deuil? Un examen attentif de l'ensemble des études nous apprend que le deuil suite à un suicide présente des caractéristiques particulières, qui se manifestent davantage chez des personnes plus vulnérables.