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Perceptions Regarding Cough and TB in the Bassac Area, Phnom Penh, Cambodia . Anne Y. Guillou*, Francesca Stuer*, Michael E. Kimerling**, Gina Dallabetta*** *IMPACT Cambodia/Family Health International **Gorgas Memorial Institute/University of Alabama at Birmingham
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Perceptions Regarding Cough and TB in the Bassac Area, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Anne Y. Guillou*, Francesca Stuer*, Michael E. Kimerling**, Gina Dallabetta*** *IMPACT Cambodia/Family Health International **Gorgas Memorial Institute/University of Alabama at Birmingham ***IMPACT/Family Health International, Arlington, Virginia, USA
Modern medicines can cure TB. But people will be wary of using such medicines unless they fit with cultural beliefs and perceptions. An FHI/Impact TB study among a Phnom Penh squatter community showed that:
...a hot disease caused by an imbalance of fluids in the body ...it should be treated with cold medicines ...modern TB medicines are seen as strong and hot; therefore they are believed to be inappropriate for TB
...identified by non-physicians through the type and sound of a person’s cough ...“dry” coughs are bad, “wet” coughs aren’t thought to be dangerous ...Cambodians identify many types of “dry” cough, including “TB cough”
...toah (conflict); a condition which can manifest as a “uterus” cough ...“uterus”cough is another hot condition, believed to be untreatable with modern medicines ...because of this, many women who think they have “uterus” coughs wait months before going to hospital
...working too hard and “breaking your strength” ...same sex inheritance; it is believed by many that husbands and wives cannot infect each other ...catching someone else’s bad luck or tempting fate, by using the “dangerous word” TB too often
...can be thwarted by evil spirits ...is often avoided because of the cost, or left unfinished because symptoms have disappeared ...is often avoided because people do not want to accept that they have TB. Many still see it as an inevitably fatal disease
Summary TB prevention and care work in Cambodia needs to take account of people’s beliefs and perceptions, perhaps by... Giving Paracetamol, seen as a cold medicine, alongside usual treatment ...Emphasising that TB need not kill, if the right help is obtained quickly
The research aimed to: 1. Achieve a better understanding of perceptions and treatment-seeking behaviors related to long-term coughs and TB among squatters in Bassac 2. Help in developing appropriate training and IEC materials for community TB work For further details, email impact@fhi.org.kh Images from the Cambodian National Center for Health Promotion (NCHP) and the Cambodian Health Promotion & Primary Health Care Project (CHP&PHCP)
