We Remember… Elders’ Memories and Perceptions of Sleeping Sickness Control Interventions in West Nile, Uganda
The traditional role of African elders and their connection with the community make them important stakeholders in community-based disease control programmes. We explored elders’ memories related to interventions against sleeping sickness to assess whether or not past interventions created any traum...
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| Format: | Online |
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Public Library of Science
2016
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| Online Access: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4890773/ |
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pubmed-48907732016-06-10 We Remember… Elders’ Memories and Perceptions of Sleeping Sickness Control Interventions in West Nile, Uganda Kovacic, Vanja Tirados, Inaki Esterhuizen, Johan Mangwiro, Clement T. N. Lehane, Michael J. Torr, Stephen J. Smith, Helen Research Article The traditional role of African elders and their connection with the community make them important stakeholders in community-based disease control programmes. We explored elders’ memories related to interventions against sleeping sickness to assess whether or not past interventions created any trauma which might hamper future control operations. Using a qualitative research framework, we conducted and analysed twenty-four in-depth interviews with Lugbara elders from north-western Uganda. Participants were selected from the villages inside and outside known historical sleeping sickness foci. Elders’ memories ranged from examinations of lymph nodes conducted in colonial times to more recent active screening and treatment campaigns. Some negative memories dating from the 1990s were associated with diagnostic procedures, treatment duration and treatment side effects, and were combined with memories of negative impacts related to sleeping sickness epidemics particularly in HAT foci. More positive observations from the recent treatment campaigns were reported, especially improvements in treatment. Sleeping sickness interventions in our research area did not create any permanent traumatic memories, but memories remained flexible and open to change. This study however identified that details related to medical procedures can remain captured in a community’s collective memory for decades. We recommend more emphasis on communication between disease control programme planners and communities using detailed and transparent information distribution, which is not one directional but rather a dialogue between both parties. Public Library of Science 2016-06-02 /pmc/articles/PMC4890773/ /pubmed/27253367 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0004745 Text en © 2016 Kovacic et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
| repository_type |
Open Access Journal |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
US National Center for Biotechnology Information |
| building |
NCBI PubMed |
| collection |
Online Access |
| language |
English |
| format |
Online |
| author |
Kovacic, Vanja Tirados, Inaki Esterhuizen, Johan Mangwiro, Clement T. N. Lehane, Michael J. Torr, Stephen J. Smith, Helen |
| spellingShingle |
Kovacic, Vanja Tirados, Inaki Esterhuizen, Johan Mangwiro, Clement T. N. Lehane, Michael J. Torr, Stephen J. Smith, Helen We Remember… Elders’ Memories and Perceptions of Sleeping Sickness Control Interventions in West Nile, Uganda |
| author_facet |
Kovacic, Vanja Tirados, Inaki Esterhuizen, Johan Mangwiro, Clement T. N. Lehane, Michael J. Torr, Stephen J. Smith, Helen |
| author_sort |
Kovacic, Vanja |
| title |
We Remember… Elders’ Memories and Perceptions of Sleeping Sickness Control Interventions in West Nile, Uganda |
| title_short |
We Remember… Elders’ Memories and Perceptions of Sleeping Sickness Control Interventions in West Nile, Uganda |
| title_full |
We Remember… Elders’ Memories and Perceptions of Sleeping Sickness Control Interventions in West Nile, Uganda |
| title_fullStr |
We Remember… Elders’ Memories and Perceptions of Sleeping Sickness Control Interventions in West Nile, Uganda |
| title_full_unstemmed |
We Remember… Elders’ Memories and Perceptions of Sleeping Sickness Control Interventions in West Nile, Uganda |
| title_sort |
we remember… elders’ memories and perceptions of sleeping sickness control interventions in west nile, uganda |
| description |
The traditional role of African elders and their connection with the community make them important stakeholders in community-based disease control programmes. We explored elders’ memories related to interventions against sleeping sickness to assess whether or not past interventions created any trauma which might hamper future control operations. Using a qualitative research framework, we conducted and analysed twenty-four in-depth interviews with Lugbara elders from north-western Uganda. Participants were selected from the villages inside and outside known historical sleeping sickness foci. Elders’ memories ranged from examinations of lymph nodes conducted in colonial times to more recent active screening and treatment campaigns. Some negative memories dating from the 1990s were associated with diagnostic procedures, treatment duration and treatment side effects, and were combined with memories of negative impacts related to sleeping sickness epidemics particularly in HAT foci. More positive observations from the recent treatment campaigns were reported, especially improvements in treatment. Sleeping sickness interventions in our research area did not create any permanent traumatic memories, but memories remained flexible and open to change. This study however identified that details related to medical procedures can remain captured in a community’s collective memory for decades. We recommend more emphasis on communication between disease control programme planners and communities using detailed and transparent information distribution, which is not one directional but rather a dialogue between both parties. |
| publisher |
Public Library of Science |
| publishDate |
2016 |
| url |
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4890773/ |
| _version_ |
1613587894652370944 |