ABSTRACT
Increasingly, it is recognised by health planners and social scientists that self medication with drugs bought over the counter in private pharmacies is extremely widespread. Some anthropologists see this trend as an aspect of the 'commodification of health'. In this study, group interviews with health service users and providers in Gaza revealed many health service users reporting an inadequate supply of drugs resulting in the purchasing of drugs in private pharmacies. As a result, a survey of the pattern of utilization of three private pharmacies in three contrasting urban areas within the Gaza Strip was undertaken. Using a questionnaire, data were collected from all customers buying drugs. The results show that variations in the patterns of health seeking behaviour were associated with socioeconomic status. Adult males were the most frequent customers of all three pharmacies. They were buying medicines for members of their nuclear family more often than for themselves. Overall, pain and influenza were the most commonly reported conditions. The drugs purchased most frequently for women were for reproductive health problems, particularly infertility. Customers of the pharmacy in the relatively prosperous area more commonly purchased drugs which were prescribed by a private doctor.
Subject(s)
Pharmacies/statistics & numerical data , Self Medication , Adult , Drug Utilization , Female , Humans , Male , Middle East , Urban PopulationABSTRACT
The use of anthropological qualitative methods to validate and improve health surveillance data is demonstrated through an examination of the process of birth registration in Gaza. Theoretically, the importance of understanding the link between historical events and microlevel decision-making is emphasized both in general terms and specifically in the context of the Gaza Strip today. In the course of interviewing a sample of mother/infant pairs selected from a register of births in the Gaza Strip it became evident that 100% of the addresses were incomplete. Using qualitative methods in the form of field visits and interviews with physicians, clerks and nurses, an understanding of the information pathway for birth registration data was developed. It was also established that there was some erroneous recording of birthweight. An intervention was designed which failed to improve the accuracy of addresses but did improve the recording of birthweight.
Subject(s)
Birth Certificates , Data Interpretation, Statistical , Population Surveillance/methods , Registries , Adolescent , Adult , Bias , Birth Weight , Female , Humans , Infant, Newborn , Maternal Age , Middle Aged , Middle East , Reproducibility of Results , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
An outbreak of cholera involving 161 culture-positive cases of biotype El-Tor Serotype Ogawa occurred in the Gaza Strip in the summer and autumn of 1981. The signs and symptoms of the disease were mild to moderate in two thirds of the cases. In many of them the disease was so mild that the patients did not realize they had cholera. Another outstanding feature of the disease was the high percentage of family clustering. From constant monitoring of water, sewage, and vegetables we were unable to show that they played any part in the transmission. A case control study which specifically investigated these items showed no differences between cases and controls. Epidemiological investigation indicated that the disease was probably introduced into the area by a visitor from Jordan, where an epidemic was in progress. The first spread followed a wedding party and seems to have been caused by ingestion of contaminated soft drinks. Subsequent spread was probably caused mainly by carriers who were either asymptomatic or very mild cases. The actual transmission seems to have occurred from person to person, by food contamination, or by both. The authors believe, therefore, that the transmission of El-Tor cholera has many features in common with other bacterial diseases that are transmitted by the faecal-oral route.
