Popular beliefs about the infectivity of water among school children in two hyperendemic schistosomiasis areas of Brazil

Abstract

This article examines changing common knowledge of elementary school children to scientific knowledge related to the relationship between water characteristics and the transmission of schistosomiasis through health education. A review of the literature and two case studies from rural elementary schools in Brazil show how the prevailing concept of dirty and polluted water, which has operated as an epistemological obstacle for acquiring scientific knowledge, may be related to symbolic thought and cultural parameters. Through an educational intervention not commonly applied to health programs involving elementary school students in two schistosomiasis-endemic rural communities in Brazil this paper describes the difficulties researchers encountered in changing the prevailing perception that very dirty and polluted water provides optimal conditions for schistosome transmission, to the scientifically accepted view that transmission occurs most often in visually clean, although fecally contaminated water. This conceptual difficulty may be largely explained in terms of the symbolism involved in clean and dirty water and the life-giving quality of water. Based on our results, we recommend that knowledge about water-related beliefs and concepts among school children should be considered in school-based health education programs in areas of endemic schistosomiasis and possibly other intestinal infections.

The roles of water, sanitation and hygiene in reducing schistosomiasis: a review

“…As shown in Figure 3 , high organic pollution of a water body may limit the habitats of intermediate host snails, which thrive under mild organic pollution, but are rarely found in areas of heavy pollution [ 47 , 189 - 195 ]. Sanitation, which acts to reduce such organic pollution, may therefore expand such habitats.…”

The effects of household water insecurity on child health and well‐being

“…A child's sudden action, such as retrieving a toy or falling into a drain, is often unpreventable, and caregivers' attention may be divided among other responsibilities (Bartlett, 2003). Children may be verbally and physically reprimanded by caregivers for their purposeful or accidental play in an effort to impart the importance of avoiding unsafe water (Bartlett, 2003; Gazzinelli et al, 2008). Time spent collecting water further limits play, as children spend multiple hours traveling to and from improved/unimproved sources of water and/or wait in long queues (Nandy & Gordon, 2009; UNICEF, 2017).…”

Prevention of intestinal parasites in a tri‐border area of Latin America: Children perceptions and an integral health education strategy

“…In this regard, in Asia, for example, there exist international strategies that include the implementation of effective health education campaigns at primary school level to decrease the prevalence of Malaria disease in the international Greater Mekong Subregion (Okabayashi et al, 2006;Wang et al, 2016). Among the countries bordering with our region, Brazil has developed several approaches based on health and environmental education to prevent Schistosomiasis and other intestinal infections (Gazzinelli, Gazzinelli, Santos, & Goncalves, 2002;Gazzinelli, Kloos, de Cassia Marques, dos Reis, & Gazzinelli, 2008;Gazzinelli et al, 2006). Although there is a substantial growing work directed to face the infection diseases based on educational strategies, more efforts have to be made to attend these issues from a joint perspective among neighbourhood countries.…”