A main component of current malaria control strategies to reduce malaria-related mortality and severe morbidity is early diagnosis and treatment at peripheral health services such as village health posts and dispensaries. This strategy has been promoted mainly by sensitising the population with regard to the available service offered and by providing classical biomedical descriptions of symptoms and signs of malaria. This strategy represents important challenges for successful implementation and maintenance. Early treatment depends upon prompt recognition of symptoms and signs of malaria in the household, i.e. mainly by women. Early treatment also requires that appropriate health services and medication are accessible and used. In this paper we argue that the success of malaria control depends upon an approach that is gender-sensitive and takes into account the level of endemicity in a given setting. The level of endemicity determines which group of the population is at highest risk for infection, morbidity and mortality, and is strongly related to gender considerations. The paper develops a typology that combines the key factors of gender variables with epidemiological features. It consequently outlines an approach to community-based, effective malaria control tailored to a given endemic setting. Finally, we suggest that the proposed framework could be validated for its potential application to the control of other communicable diseases.

Culture↗

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The status of women in rural India: a village study.

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Adolescent↗

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Fertility intentions and subsequent behavior: a longitudinal study in rural India.

This report compares fertility and family planning intentions of rural Indian women in 1975 with actual outcomes in 1987. Ninety-four of 103 respondents who had fewer children than they wanted in 1975 and had stated definite intentions with respect to future fertility and contraceptive use were reinterviewed in 1987. Overall, women had fewer children than desired and stopped childbearing when they reached or closely approximated their ideal number of sons. Since sons were clearly the determinant of "reproductive success," it is argued that only a significant change in the status of rural women can bring about widespread compliance with the official family planning program's two-child norm.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Quality health care for women: a global challenge.

This paper discusses barriers to the provision of high quality care from the perspectives of the health system and female clients, and interventions that have been developed to overcome these barriers. These interventions are in the area of reproductive health, where most attention to women's health has focused; they consist mainly of assessment tools that can be used by peripheral health workers and rural women themselves. The paper argues that in nonreproductive health generally, there is a dearth of information on the biological and social determinants and consequences of infection and disease from a gender perspective. Recommendations are made for further research on quality of care and for practical interventions with application to women's health, both within and outside the reproductive context.

Female↗