title: Of 'microbes' and 'millet': the practice of tea tea in northern Uganda.
abstract: In northern Uganda, incisions called tea tea are commonly placed on the chests of children outside of the biomedical setting to relieve respiratory distress. To better characterize tea tea, we administered a questionnaire to 224 caretakers, whose children had evidence tea tea cuts. In 148 cases (66.4%), the grandparents made the decision to have the cuts performed, at times against the wishes of the caretakers. One seventy-six (80.0%) of the patients were seen by a medical professional just prior to receiving the cuts. Traditional healers and grandmothers, respectively, performed the cuts in 164 (73.5%) and 42 (18.8%) cases. Caretakers paid at least 500 USh (US$0.29) for tea tea in 129 cases (57.8%) and nothing in 71 cases (31.4%). This study shows that tea tea is a healing practice with associated costs that is regularly advocated for and performed by grandmothers and traditional healers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA. mwesterhaus@partners.org
authors.forename: Michael Jon
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Westerhaus
authors.forename: Yoti
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zabulon
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D016488:Medicine, African Traditional; D010372:Pediatrics; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000628:therapy*; D012141:Respiratory Tract Infections / Q000601:surgery*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D019616:Thoracic Surgical Procedures / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014454:Uganda