It's not only what you say, it's also how you say it: communicating nipah virus prevention messages during an outbreak in Bangladesh.

ABSTRACT:

Background

During a fatal Nipah virus (NiV) outbreak in Bangladesh, residents rejected biomedical explanations of NiV transmission and treatment and lost trust in the public healthcare system. Field anthropologists developed and communicated a prevention strategy to bridge the gap between the biomedical and local explanation of the outbreak.

Methods

We explored residents' beliefs and perceptions about the illness and care-seeking practices and explained prevention messages following an interactive strategy with the aid of photos showed the types of contact that can lead to NiV transmission from bats to humans by drinking raw date palm sap and from person-to-person.

Results

The residents initially believed that the outbreak was caused by supernatural forces and continu

SUBMITTER: Parveen S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4974711 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature