Local explanations of HIV/AIDS among coastal societies in Tanzania: a case study of Mji Mwema and Mwongozo villages.

This study examines the local explanations of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Tanzania. There has been some responses at the community level as people encounter the disease. The social construction of the clinical reality of HIV/AIDS is the subject matter of this study. The study investigates on the local held beliefs about the causation of AIDS as well as community responses in terms of health seeking behaviour. The study elaborates on the coexisting though not collaborating health care systems in a medical pluralistic coastal Tanzania. Bio-medicine and traditional medicine overlap as clients use their boundaries as entry and exit points in their quest for therapy. The area involved in the study was Mji Mwema and Mwongozo villages in Temeke District. Data was collected through the use of structured interviews, questionnaires and documentary analysis supplemented by unstructured interviews. According to the findings, the local explanations of HIV/AIDS differ from the medical doctors explanation of the disease. This has led to non conformity to public health education about AIDS. The study concludes that Primary Health Care principles should be adopted in AIDS prevention campaigns, with participation at all levels of the community. AIDS education should be done in a culturally appropriate and adaptive process.