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Abstract

Abstract


Pneumonia is a major child killer in the developing world; to prevent such deaths, mothers must be able to differentiate pneumonia from common cold. Local concepts regarding these illnesses were studied by interviewing 315 mothers of young children in their homes in Punjabi villages. Mothers described pneumonia differently from cough-and-cold but only a few volunteered fast breathing as a sign of pneumonia. Both illnesses were thought to be caused by “coldness,” and were initially treated with “heat-producing” home remedies and feeding was continued in both. Spiritual healers were not consulted for cough-and-cold or pneumonia. Virtually all mothers said that allopathic medicines were necessary for both illnesses and 2/3rd said that if a child did not improve after 2 days of a given medicine, they would change the medicine and/or the doctor