[Education concerning health, water and sanitation in the control of schistosomiasis].
Education concerning prevailing health problems and the methods of preventing and controlling them is the first of the eight essential components of health care stated in the Declaration of Alma-Ata 1978. As regards schistosomiasis, the current strategy of control is based on the reduction of morbidity within the context of primary health care. In this perspective, it follows that in any control programme health education must have a central place in its operations. This health education, a multidisciplinary science so far neglected by health programmes of developing countries, now has new approaches that health workers must take into account. In the case of schistosomiasis, the target of health education must be the control of transmission (human-water contacts), sanitation (urinary and faecal contamination) and chemotherapy, all this with the voluntary and conscious participation of the community. There are no standard health education programmes which are applicable everywhere; they must be developed locally with the communities concerned so that the health technologies proposed will be appropriate, applicable, and compatible with their socio-cultural situation and their resources.
Guiguemdé
T R
TR
Agrégé de Parasitologie, O.C.C.G.E./Centre Muraz, Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso.
D000818:Animals; D006266:Health Education / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D012552:Schistosomiasis / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000635:transmission
Education pour la santé, eau et assainissement dans la lutte contre les schistosomiases.