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      Indigenous knowledge of HIV/AIDS among High School students in Namibia

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          Abstract

          Background

          The use of Indigenous Knowledge (IK) can help students to form schemas for interpreting local phenomena through the prism of what they already know. The formation of schemas related to HIV/AIDS risk perception and prevention is important for individuals to form local meanings of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The objective of this study was to explore the indigenous names and symptoms of HIV/AIDS among High School students in Namibia

          Methods

          Focus group discussions were used to collect qualitative data on indigenous names and symptoms of HIV/AIDS from students in 18 secondary schools located in six education regions. Data were grouped into themes.

          Results

          People living with HIV/AIDS were called names meaning prostitute: ihule, butuku bwa sihule, and shikumbu. Names such as kibutu bwa masapo (bone disease), katjumba (a young child), kakithi (disease), and shinangele (very thin person) were used to describe AIDS. Derogatory names like mbwa (dog), esingahogo (pretender), ekifi (disease), and shinyakwi noyana (useless person) were also used. Other terms connoted death ( zeguru, heaven; omudimba, corpse), fear ( simbandembande, fish eagle; katanga kamufifi, (hot ball), and subtle meaning using slang words such as 4 × 4, oondanda ne (four letters), desert soul, and mapilelo (an AIDS service organization). Typical (body wasting) and non-typical (big head, red eyes) symptoms of HIV were also revealed.

          Conclusions

          The study determined students' IK of the names and symptoms of HIV/AIDS. Programmes to prevent/manage adolescent HIV infection and stigma may be strengthened if they take students' indigenous understandings of the disease on board.

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          Most cited references10

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          Narrative representations of chronic illness experience: cultural models of illness, mind, and body in stories concerning the temporomandibular joint (TMJ).

          L Garro (1994)
          The narratives individuals told about their experiences with an illness they have come to understand as TMJ, a problem linked to the temporomandibular joints of the jaw, are complex. Each is embedded within a unique set of life circumstances and guided by individual schemas and explanatory models. Each recounts how persons have come to make sense of perplexing symptoms that are not easily categorized and treated within the North American health care system. Yet, in spite of their distinctiveness, the reconstructed narratives are not independent of shared cultural schemas, such as those relating to mind and body, and other shared models, such as the model for TMJ, which individuals come to adopt as a consequence of treatment and interaction with others. The consistent emergence of themes concerning the mind and body within and across narratives attest to their salience for understanding the narratives related here. While describing the effect of illness on individual lives, narratives also illuminate how shared understanding shape the interpretation and construction of individual experience.
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            Indigenous representations of illness and AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa.

            Cultures all over the world have evolved illness representations that can accommodate not only new diseases, but also new epistemologies for explaining disease. This paper examines illness representations in Sub-Saharan Africa, and how these have responded to the emergence of AIDS. Indigenous views of illness (particularly STDs) exhibit coherent structure, in which causation, prevention and treatment relate to one another in functional ways. As an STD, an epidemic, and a disease which leads to premature death, AIDS lends itself readily to accommodation into established indigenous representations of illness. Even biomedical views of causation can be readily incorporated into traditional views of how illnesses are caused. However, biomedical and traditional views concerning prevention appear to be in direct conflict with one another, with potentially hazardous consequences. Research exploring the extent to which indigenous beliefs may be influencing people's decisions about safe sex could offer useful insights for AIDS prevention programs.
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              Elective course in acute care using online learning and patient simulation.

              To enhance students' knowledge of and critical-thinking skills in the management of acutely ill patients using online independent learning partnered with high-fidelity patient simulation sessions. Students enrolled in the Acute Care Simulation watched 10 weekly Web-based video presentations on various critical care and advanced cardiovascular pharmacotherapy topics. After completing each online module, all students participated in groups in patient-care simulation exercises in which they prepared a pharmacotherapeutic plan for the patient, recommended this plan to the patient's physician, and completed a debriefing session with the facilitator. Students completed a pretest and posttest before and after each simulation exercise, as well as midterm and final evaluations and a satisfaction survey. Pharmacy students significantly improved their scores on 9 of the 10 tests (p ≤ 0.05). Students' performance on the final evaluation improved compared with performance on the midterm evaluation. Overall, students were satisfied with the unique dual approach to learning and enjoyed the realistic patient-care environment that the simulation laboratory provided. Participation in an elective course that combined self-directed Web-based learning and hands-on patient simulation exercises increased pharmacy students' knowledge and critical-thinking skills in acute care.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                J Ethnobiol Ethnomed
                Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
                BioMed Central
                1746-4269
                2011
                9 June 2011
                : 7
                : 17
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Namibia, P/B 13301, Windhoek, Namibia
                [2 ]Department of Science, Mathematics and Sports Education, Faculty of Education, University of Namibia, P/B 13301, Windhoek, Namibia
                Article
                1746-4269-7-17
                10.1186/1746-4269-7-17
                3126695
                21658245
                8e578538-7308-40c1-b525-f3579756cc8b
                Copyright ©2011 Chinsembu et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

                This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

                History
                : 14 February 2011
                : 9 June 2011
                Categories
                Research

                Health & Social care
                Health & Social care

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