Are you a
superstition believer? Afraid to do anything important on Friday 13th?
Get
paranoid if black cat crosses your path? Many of these superstitions are
cultural phenomena and have their own origins. You will be surprised to hear
how far and bizarre these superstitions can get, but the point of concern here
is if these cultural phenomena reach to the point of posing serious dangerous.
A similar cultural superstition is associated with tuberculosis that has the
most unusual story that might be really fascinating to hear, but its
implications are very serious and pose great hindrance to tuberculosis research
and treatment.
In a rural
district of South Africa, there is a strong belief that tuberculosis is the
result of breaking cultural rules that demand abstinence form sexual
intercourse after death of a family member or after a woman has an abortion.
According to their belief traditional healers can only treat tuberculosis. It
is also their belief that TB spreads from sufferers to other people who engage
in excessive smoking and alcohol use.
The origin of
this cultural superstition is largely unknown. Perhaps these practices were
implemented in old days to abstain people from certain acts deemed as bad or to
promote an alcohol free society. But the health aspects of these cultural
practices are something that is of serious concern.
Tuberculosis is a
highly endemic disease and TB cases are rapidly increasing in rate in South
Africa. If beliefs and superstitions like these are still engraved in people’s
mind then that means tuberculosis cases are not reaching the right places; that
is hospitals and clinics. There is a strong stigmatization associated with this
disease and most people do not tell about their symptoms because of shyness and
fear of being held accountable for doing something they were supposed to be
abstaining from. This often times result in high number of deaths as the
disease is not being brought to health worker’s notice and thus no treatment is
being given. There is also a very high risk of spread of disease as these
people are basing the mode of contact on an entirely different and delusional source. The
local health workers are mostly unaware of these traditional practices that
also creates great hindrance in treatment.
The first and utmost important thing is
the implementation of a good control program that will increase cure rate of
tuberculosis patients. Health workers need to have information about local
beliefs so that they can work accordingly on how to proceed with treatment.
It is also
important to educate these people and create awareness among these people to
not abstain from sexual intercourse after someone dies but to abstain from
believing in these kinds of cultural superstitions. If a black cat crosses your
path, it simply signifies it is going somewhere, nothing more.
Do you know of any similar interesting superstitions?
tuberculosis control? A study in a rural district of South Africa. Int J Tuberc
Lung Dis. 2002 Dec;6(12):1075-82. PubMed PMID: 12546115.
I think this story also highlights the idea that the education of tuberculosis is not as far spread as we are hoping to to be and like you mentioned because they are not educated they are failing to show up to hospitals to get treated properly. I liked your comment about 'if a black cat crosses your path' it really means nothing because on a logical level you are correct. However people create superstitions to make sense of some negativity that occurred in their lives. Superstitions can be hard to remove especially when it's been a myth for so long such as the South Africans believe TB can be contracted from having sex after a death occurs. It just shows how much more we need education in developing countries.
ReplyDeleteHey Rimsha, wow the way that you started your post was awesome…you totally had my attention the entire time. I always thought about superstitions and actually had a black cat cross my path one day and I couldn’t help but think that something bad was going to happen any minute now. I had no idea that people had these superstitions that can affect their health. I think the best way to stop this is to educate people. The more they learn about the disease and how it occurs in the body is the best way. I have heard of many villages having superstitions about certain things but I can’t think of any at the moment.
ReplyDeleteRimsha, this is a really neat post. I think it is cool to learn about other cultural norms. This is very common with other cultures I see. It is kind of like bad karma. If you are doing bad things, it is seen as a punishment. I think it is crazy to think that some of these diseases, TB, being one can become antibiotic resistant. We saw in history how much havoc it can wreak without antibiotics to combat it. It is truly a very scary and harmful disease. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your posts Rimsha, they have been highly informative and I wish you the best in the future.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting post! I think that learning about cultural norms is always interesting. I think it is important that you highlighted the need for education. It is so imperative that people in situations like the example you provided here with tb learn the true symptoms and accurate modes of transmission. I’m sure that you are correct in your assertion that those false superstitions were adopted as a way to control undesirable behaviors. This can be seen in almost every society. Fear and shame should not be used as a means of control. I agree with your post that education is the best way to combat these false superstitions and limit future outbreaks of the disease.
ReplyDeleteHey Rimsha,
ReplyDeleteI found this post very interesting! My grandparents are very superstitious, for example I thought that whenever they mentioned that a black cat that crosses your path is bad luck was just plain old crazy, but a superstition about tuberculosis in south africa you mentioned blew me out of the water. It's interesting to see the differences on different culture but I think its also important to see what are the befits if people helped them become aware of these superstitions and showed them that they were indeed false.
The only problem I see with this is a possible conflict with this community. How would you be able to keep them from believing their superstition wasn't real? How long have they been believing this superstition because my best guess is that it would take time before they start changing their views.
Hi Rimsha,
ReplyDeleteI found your topic very eye-opening. We hear about diseases like Malaria, AIDS, Ebola and a few other well known, highly publicized ones but its not often tuberculosis is discussed. It's not too uncommon to see people wearing surgeon masks in public which is evidence of a level of awareness towards the threat of diseases in this country. On the contrary, there are subtle examples of non-traditional medicine practices right here in the USA in the form of hypnosis, holistic medicine, and other contraversial methods. I think the point you made about the culture's beliefs surrounding the disease keeping some from coming forward and treating it at all is the difference between non-traditional medicine and plain ignorance.