Rumours and Riots: Local Responses to Mass Drug Administration for the Treatment of Neglected Tropical Diseases Among School-Ag
Rumours and riots: Local responses to mass drug administration for the treatment of neglected tropical diseases among school-aged children in Morogoro Region, Tanzania A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Julie Dawn Hastings Department of Anthropology School of Social Sciences Brunel University January 2013 Abstract In August 2008, a biomedical intervention providing free drugs to school aged children to treat two endemic diseases – schistosomiasis haematobium and soil- transmitted helminths - in Morogoro region, Tanzania, was suspended after violent riots erupted. Parents and guardians rushed to schools to prevent their children taking the drugs when they heard reports of children dying in Morogoro town after receiving treatment. When pupils heard these reports, many of those who had swallowed the pills began to complain of dizziness and fainted. In Morogoro town hundreds of pupils were rushed to the Regional Hospital by their parents and other onlookers. News of these apparent fatalities spread throughout the region, including to Doma village where I was conducting fieldwork. Here, protesting villagers accused me of bringing the medicine into the village with which to “poison” the children and it was necessary for me to leave the village immediately under the protection of the Tanzanian police. This thesis, based on eleven months fieldwork between 2007 and 2010 in Doma village and parts of Morogoro town, asks why was this biomedical intervention so vehemently rejected? By analysing local understandings and responses to the mass distribution of drugs in relation to the specific historical, social, political, and economic context in which it occurred, it shows that there was a considerable disjuncture between biomedical understandings of these diseases, including the epidemiological rationale for the provision of preventive chemotherapy, and local perspectives.
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