Samukelisiwe Mazibuko

Student number: 221080701

Assignment 2: Anthropology 201

Introduction

Cholera disease is an infection of the intestine and bacteria disease which makes people to
vomit, having stomach problems which is caused of drinking dirty water. This disease
affected the most in rural areas as many people were drinking water in rivers they had no tap
water in the back days, it is even found in the cities as this illness caused by eating food with
bacteria sold with expired dates or unhealth food. This essay explains how the role of medical
anthropologist plays in stopping the more affected people cholera in Gauteng.

Cholera can be spread so easily, a person that is affected can affect it in millions of people if
they make contact with who got the disease. The risk become high if poverty and natural
disasters are in one place with many people. A person with cholera can be seen having
sunken eyes, dry mouth, thirst and vomiting etc. In a community that have rives other people
through waste in the water at when other people drink that water and watering plants with
deity water can cause illness. Diarrhea which is caused by cholera causes dangerous of
dehydration, may have pale, milk appearance, (Bennington-Castro, L. & Scott, J, 2023).

The cholera that happened in Gauteng was the only case reported in 2023 at the start of the
year. the reported disease that was vibrio cholera it was characterised as toxigenic vibrio
cholerae 01this two cases were negative on culture and identified by PCR tests they were
tested to ciprofloxacin and azithromycin. These cases were indigenous cases they reported of
untreated water from the rivers. The risk of importing cases in other places trying to
experience cholera outbreak, people working under health care and laboratories tested the
cholera in person with water diarrhoea without being travel and link to known cases. Health
care works had to look cholera in someone with acute watery diarrhoea, collected stool
specimen and requested culture, the specimens was collected before antibiotic treatment is
given and they also complete the medical condition notifying form, (no author, 2023).

Medical anthropology it is the way of studying of social, cultural, biological and scientific of
studying anthropology to understand the factors that affect health and wellbeing. Medical
anthropology can manage to stop the affection of cholera as it is working with research health
and society. There are campions of cross culture breadth, a clear understanding of health
experience in so many ways as it is using the grained, relative approach to find a strong
global platform for analysing health related concerns, also give people view of the world it
extended the critical enquiry to experience population groups, structural vulnerability and
social agency and it exploring human health and wellbeing in many ways as methodology
being put forward, social theory and health related practise,(Panther-brick. C and Eggerman
M,2017). Anthropology and epidemiology work together to coincident health research as
they address biological, social and cultural causes and the consequences of illness, these two
fields can work together to look what makes the affection of cholera and find cure. The
medical anthropology would use the big range of quantitative and qualitative to search what
make people sick in terms of biological and cultural context and they would see what created
cholera, what they should do to reduce it and what king of medication they need to stop
cholera. The medical anthropology looks at correspondent in areas of study, the method to
use, focus on individual, the social responsibility of illness, the ways of preventing the spread
of disease and find living condition that would affect sickness. The anthropologist has
methods which is used into epidemiological design, the is qualitative preliminary stage which
improving to the measures and the access to population, test the theories and used of critique
epidemiological measure and the design in mind, (Trostle.T & Sommerfeld. T 1996).

The anthropologist uses data to look for the result like to see how much the disease is spread
and to look for treatment of that disease does it work for people, or it chooses the body of a
person. The medical anthropologist also finds ways to make people to love collecting their
medicine, it can check what caused that disease, what are things to tell people to stop doing
so that they will not be affected like person with cholera must stay away from people as this
disease can be find even in the air and it is easily spread. People died because of this disease
in the province of Gauteng was the one which had high case of cholera.

To conclude medical anthropology would stop virus of the cholera by using the method it
applies, but there is no experiment of that it can even work or not, the way it is explained it
shows that the spread of the disease can surely stop following experiment of the way they use
to get away from its illness. This essay is clarifying how the medical anthropology can work
to stop the spread of cholera, the things it uses to find solutions of this, how the disease
affected the people of Gauteng and what were the causes of cholera. People must ensure that
they drink clean water try to find ways to clean water on their own, people must ensure they
eat health food and people who sell food must check expired food before selling it. The most
important is to go to the clinic if they are suspicious symptoms of cholera so that you can
help before it to late because this disease kills people even young people.
Reference list

Bennington, J and Scott, J .2023. what is choler: symptoms and causes. Everyday Health, 1-9.

Cholera outbreak in south Africa. Nation institute for communicable diseases, 2023. 1.

Trostle,J and Sommerfeld, J. 1996. Medical anthropology and Epidemiology. Annual review
of anthropology, 25, 253-274. https://www.jstor .org/stable/2155827.

Panter-brick, C. 2017. The fields of medical anthropology in social science and medicine:
social science and medicine. https: www.researchgate. net/publication/320762631.