title: Malaria, environmental change, and an [corrected] historical epidemiology of childhood 'cold fevers': popular interpretations from southwestern Burkina Faso.
abstract: We examine how southwestern Burkina Faso populations interpret political ecological and social change for the past 40 years to assert a changing epidemiology of childhood "cold fevers"-malaria-like illnesses. Lay knowledge about "cold fevers" is historically produced, reflecting political economic, social, ecological and biomedical changes, and the historical consciousness of people living with these illnesses. While informants insisted that dislocations wrought by a post-colonial irrigation scheme increased cold fevers, they offered different explanations for their increased incidence and intensity. This historical epidemiology of cold fevers may influence parents' care decisions, but global public health interventions are rapidly changing therapeutic access.
authors.affiliation: Unit of the Epidemiology of Emerging Diseases, Institut Pasteur, 25-28 rue du Docteur Roux, Paris Cedex 15, France. tamara.giles-vernick@pasteur.fr
authors.forename: Tamara
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Giles-Vernick
authors.forename: Abdoulaye
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Traoré
authors.forename: Sodiomon B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Sirima
mesh_terms: D002050:Burkina Faso / Q000453:epidemiology; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000266:history*; D005260:Female; D005334:Fever / Q000453:epidemiology; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008288:Malaria / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000266:history; D008297:Male; D011634:Public Health; D012924:Social Conditions