ACUTE RESPIRATORY INFECTIONS-MOTHERS PERCEPTIONS OF ETIOLOGY AND TREATMENT IN SOUTH-WESTERN NIGERIA

The focus of this research was on what mothers do when their children suffer from ARI al household level in rural settlements in Oyo State, Nigeria. A total of 419 mothers were interviewed. The study has combin ed three research methods, namely semi-structured questionnaire, in-de pth interview and focus group discussion to get an insight into their perceptions in relation to cause and treatment of the disease. Most mo thers regard ARI episodes as ordinary coughs and colds. They strongly believe that these are mostly caused by exposure to cold and perceive coldness of the body as a causal 'agent', whereas none of them mention viral or bacterial agents. The reported dominating practice of mother s was either the use of irritants to get rid of the cause of the disea se ('coldness') through vomiting, by forcing the child to swallow bitt er remedies such as cow urine, or to use a remedy with warming and soo thing properties. 'Robb', a methyl salicylate-probably the most popula r Nigerian ointment-appeared to be the drug of choice to 'warm the che st, both from outside and inside', either applied topically or dissolv ed in hot water to drink. The paper emphasizes the importance of behav ioural and social science type studies to get closer to community perc eptions of disease etiology and practices as a prerequisite for contex tualized health education. The use of inappropriate administration of remedies should be discouraged. Marketing of medicinal drug products f or inappropriate indications also needs to be controlled.