Helle Samuelsen - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Helle Samuelsen

Routledge eBooks, Jan 24, 2024

Journal of Medical Entomology, 2009

A ßoating, slow-release, granular formulation of Bacillus sphaericus (Neide) was used to control ... more A ßoating, slow-release, granular formulation of Bacillus sphaericus (Neide) was used to control mosquito larvae in two suburban areas of two tropical cities: Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso. A circular area of 2 km 2 , diameter 1,600 m, was treated in each city using a similar, smaller area 1 km away as an untreated control. Mosquito captures were made in houses in four concentric circles, from the periphery to the center; each circle was 50 m in width. Mosquitoes were captured in CDC light traps or from human landings. More than 95% of the mosquitoes were Culex quinquefasciatus (Say) (Diptera: Culicidae). The human landing catches provided twice as many mosquitoes as did the CDC traps/night/house. The treatments resulted in important reductions relative to the control area and to preintervention captures. The reduction was more prominent in the inner circle (up to 90%) than in the outer circle (50 Ð70%), presumably because of the impact of immigrating mosquitoes from nontreated breeding sites around the intervention area. This effect was more pronounced for light trap catches than from human landings. The impact of treatment was also measured as the mean ratio of mosquito density in the two outer circles to that of the two inner circles. This ratio was ϳ1:1 before the intervention and reached 1:0.43 during the intervention. This comparison does not depend on the assumption that, in the absence of intervention, the mosquito population development in the two areas would have been identical, but does depend on the homogeneity of the intervention area. The study showed that it is possible to organize mosquito control in a tropical, urban environment by forming and rapidly training teams of young people to carry out the mosquito control mostly using a biopesticide that can be applied without any tools except an iron bar to lift lids on some cesspits.

Global Public Health, Oct 8, 2020

The availability of diagnostic equipment, medical products and basic infrastructure is limited in... more The availability of diagnostic equipment, medical products and basic infrastructure is limited in most low-income societies. Poor motivation among health workers as well as recruitment and retention problems are key factors contributing to poor health care services in developing countries. The current paper describes how the front line cope with these difficult working conditions. Data for this study come from anthropological fieldwork in two districts of Burkina Faso and include a total of 27 unstructured and 40 semi-structured interviews with staff at dispensaries and medical centres in the two districts. Analytically, we make a distinction between their professional autonomy and their professional authority. We find that while the health workers experience a certain degree of professional autonomy, in the sense that they rely on their own clinical judgement and their discretion as decision makers and gatekeepers, their professional authority is constantly challenged when working at the margins of the state. Through improvisations and bricolaging, they compensate for the many shortcomings, but many of them feel that their skills are waning and that their professional identity threatened. Thus, massive strengthening of the front-line health worker's capacity is imperative for future improvement of health care services in Burkina Faso.

African Journal of AIDS Research, Nov 1, 2004

This article explores the discrepancies between the vocal public discourse on HIV/AIDS and sexual... more This article explores the discrepancies between the vocal public discourse on HIV/AIDS and sexuality as generally encouraged by policy-makers and donor communities in Africa, and the often hushed voices of their target groups: young people in African communities. Based on fieldwork among urban youth in Senegal and Burkina Faso, we describe the silence of young people with regard to HIV/AIDS and sexuality as a social phenomenon, with focus given to family relations, peer relations and gender aspects in partnerships. Drawing on Foucault and Morrell, an inability and unwillingness to speak about HIV/AIDS and sexuality are analysed as a response to an everyday life characterised by uncertainty. This response represents a certain degree of resistance, while it constitutes a major barrier to any HIV/AIDS prevention effort. Finally, we stress that despite great constraints in their everyday lives, young people have some room to manoeuvre and are able to apply some negotiating strategies to reduce sexually-related health risks.

Medicine anthropology theory, Apr 14, 2021

Globalisation intensifies global interconnectedness; reorders time and space; and stretches socia... more Globalisation intensifies global interconnectedness; reorders time and space; and stretches social, political, and economic practices across boundaries. However, globalisation is not a linear process; it takes place in discrete phases of short and concentrated bursts. The COVID-19 pandemic is one such time-space burst, or 'eruption'. In this paper, we focus on COVID-19 as an 'emerging epidemic' from the perspective of citizens in Bobo-Dioulasso, the second-largest city in Burkina Faso. We explore how these citizens experience ruptures of their everyday life due to COVID-19 and how their understandings and responses to the pandemic were shaped in a context of instability and political turbulence. We are inspired by Giddens's notion of 'time-space distanciation', which refers to 'the condition under which time and space are organized so as to connect presence and absence'. We focus on the temporality of the pandemic by looking at a specific period during the pandemic, during which the government of Burkina Faso introduced a number of restrictions as preventive measures at a time when COVID-19 as a disease was still an absent phenomenon for most people. The pandemic had not (yet) infected large numbers of people in the country and most people did not yet have any experiences of the disease. We argue that the local responses to the pandemic and the various control measures during this period must be understood in the wider context of Burkina Faso's specific socioeconomic , political, and security situations, which are distinctly fragile.

BMC Public Health, Sep 6, 2011

Background: In Vietnam, primary government health services are now accessible for the whole popul... more Background: In Vietnam, primary government health services are now accessible for the whole population including ethnic minority groups (EMGs) living in rural and mountainous areas. However, little is known about EMGs' own perspectives on illness treatment and use of health services. This study investigates treatment seeking strategies for child diarrhoea among ethnic minority caregivers in Northern Vietnam in order to suggest improvements to health services for EMGs and other vulnerable groups. Methods: The study obtained qualitative data from eight months of field work among four EMGs in lowland and highland villages in the Northern Lao Cai province. Triangulation of methods included in-depth interviews with 43 caregivers of preschool children (six years and below) who had a case of diarrhoea during the past month, three focus group discussions (FGDs) with men, and two weeks of observations at two Communal Health Stations (CHGs). Data was content-analyzed by ordering data into empirically and theoretically inspired themes and subcategories assisted by the software NVivo8. Results: This study identified several obstacles for EMG caregivers seeking health services, including: gender roles, long travelling distances for highland villagers, concerns about the indirect costs of treatment and a reluctance to use government health facilities due to feelings of being treated disrespectfully by health staff. However, ethnic minority caregivers all recognized the danger signs of child diarrhoea and actively sought simultaneous treatment in different health care systems and home-based care. Treatments were selected by matching the perceived cause and severity of the disease with the 'compatibility' of different treatments to the child. Conclusions: In order to improve EMGs' use of government health services it is necessary to improve the communication skills of health staff and to acknowledge both EMGs' explanatory disease models and the significant socioeconomic constraints they experience. Broader health promotion programs should address the significant gender roles preventing highland mothers from seeking health services and include family elders and fathers in future health promotion programs. Encouraging existing child health care practices, including continued breastfeeding during illness and the use of home-made rehydration solutions, also present important opportunities for future child health promotion.

Anthropology & Medicine, Apr 1, 2004

... &#x27;Nature or nurture: narratives of descent and heritage in Danish cases of alcoho... more ... &#x27;Nature or nurture: narratives of descent and heritage in Danish cases of alcoholism&#x27;. AM. Rivista della Societá italiana di antropologia medica , vol. 1314: pp. 2745 View all references). ... AM. Rivista della Societá italiana di antropologia medica, vol. 1314: pp. 2745. Librarians. ...

Ethnicity & Health, May 29, 2014

Objectives. Ethnic minority children in Vietnam experience high levels of hygieneand sanitation-r... more Objectives. Ethnic minority children in Vietnam experience high levels of hygieneand sanitation-related diseases. Improving hygiene for minority children is therefore vital for improving child health. The study objective was to investigate how kindergarten and home environments influence the learning of hygiene of preschool ethnic minority children in rural Vietnam. Design. Eight months of ethnographic field studies were conducted among four ethnic minority groups living in highland and lowland communities in northern Vietnam. Data included participant observation in four kindergartens and 20 homes of preschool children, together with 67 semi-structured interviews with caregivers and five kindergarten staff. Thematic analysis was applied and concepts of social learning provided inputs to the analysis. Findings. This study showed that poor living conditions with lack of basic sanitation infrastructures were important barriers for the implementation of safe home child hygiene. Furthermore, the everyday life of highland villages, with parents working away from the households resulted in little daily adult supervision of safe child hygiene practices. While kindergartens were identified as potentially important institutions for improving child hygiene education, essential and well-functioning hygiene infrastructures were lacking. Also, hygiene teaching relied on theoretical and non-practice-based learning styles, which did not facilitate hygiene behaviour change in small children. Minority children were further disadvantaged as teaching was only provided in nonminority language. Conclusions. Kindergartens can be important institutions for the promotion of safe hygiene practices among children, but they must invest in the maintenance of hygiene and sanitation infrastructures and adopt a strong practice-based teaching approach in daily work and in teacher's education. To support highland minority children in particular, teaching styles must take local living conditions and caregiver structures into account and teach in local languages. Creating stronger links between home and institutional learning environments can be vital to support disadvantaged highland families in improving child health.

The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology

Pan African Medical Journal

Tidsskriftet Antropologi, 2012

Michel Foucault har i sine analyser af forholdet mellem viden og magt beskrevet, hvordan seksuali... more Michel Foucault har i sine analyser af forholdet mellem viden og magt beskrevet, hvordan seksualitet siden victoriatiden har været genstand for en diskursiv eksplosion. Med den globale aids-epidemi har verden oplevet endnu en højlydt italesættelse af seksualitet i det offentlige rum, ofte tilskyndet af de internationale organisationer, der finansierer oplysningsprogrammerne. Erkendelse, bekendelse og åbenhed har været grundelementer i mange hiv/aids-kampagner. Mange hivpositive i Burkina Faso foretrækker imidlertid at hemmeligholde deres diagnose, fordi de er bekymrede for familiens og de nære omgivelsers reaktion. Trods adgang til den livsforlængende medicin, der betyder, at aids ikke længere nødvendigvis er en dødelig sygdom, er det i Burkina Faso fortsat en stigmatiseret sygdom, der er forbundet med skam og frygt for døden. I denne artikel beskriver vi de dilemmaer, som fattige hiv-smittede i Ouagadougou oplever, når de skal balancere mellem tale og tavshed i forhold til aids. Ba...

Tidsskriftet Antropologi, 2019

Diarrhoea is one the most common diseases among children in rural Baluchistan and contributes to ... more Diarrhoea is one the most common diseases among children in rural Baluchistan and contributes to a very high child mortality rate. A study in which 60 mothers were interviewed shows that humoral theories of hot and cold food play a prominent role in local people’s beliefs about causes of childhood diarrhoea. However, data on management of diarrhoea show that the humoral balance is not redressed by intake of cold food. Instead parhaiz, a limited diet, is used as treatment. Also biomedical anti-diarrhoeal drugs are becoming popular. Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT) has a very limited popularity because the qualities ascribed to it by the local population do not fit into a humoral perception of treatment. This study from Baluchistan and other similar studies belong to a medical anthropological tradition where specific biomedical symptoms or diseases are studied. It is suggested that our understanding of how humoral theories are applied today would benefit if analysed in a wider anthropol...

Africa, 2020

In Burkina Faso, political turmoil, escalating insecurity and a looming pandemic challenge the po... more In Burkina Faso, political turmoil, escalating insecurity and a looming pandemic challenge the population's trust in the state. This article contributes to the debates about state–citizen relationships in fragile countries by connecting local health-seeking practices with the global trends of datafication and a strong focus on the fight against malaria in this part of Africa. Drawing on long-term research engagement in Burkina Faso, I examine the health-seeking practices of rural citizens and look into diagnostic routines and reporting in two rural dispensaries. I show how the routinization of diagnostic procedures combined with a strong national and global political focus on the fight against malaria create what I term a ‘supply–demand nexus’ in which rural citizens selectively ask for the health services that they know the system can supply. I argue that the routinized diagnostic practices that mainly focus on malaria serve as a ‘technology of invisibility’ by not capturing ot...

Glocal Times, 2006

The last two decades have shown that the battle against the AIDS epidemic is much more difficult ... more The last two decades have shown that the battle against the AIDS epidemic is much more difficult to win than first anticipated. This fact has intensified the public debate on HIV/AIDS, which has become much more vociferous both at the international and national levels. It is striking, however, that the intense rhetoric among policy makers and opinion leaders at both the donor and the recipient side has not been reflected by nearly the same kind of debate among the people most concerned, particularly young people in the early stage of their sexual life. Even though their lives and future are threatened, HIV/AIDS remains largely unspoken. According to this study, there seems to be a discrepancy between the outspoken rhetoric at a global level and the ‘silence’ among young men and women.