Resources

Participation of women and children in hunting activities in Sierra Leone and implications for control of zoonotic infections

This paper underscores the challenges of interventions, surveillance, research and sensitization campaigns. To address such complexity, intervention strategies should become more diversified and context-specific. In particular the role of children should be recognised; specific intervention strategies should be tailored to children's specific hunting practices.

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Rat-Atouille: A mixed method study to characterize rodent hunting and consumption in the context of Lassa fever

This paper investigated the consumption of rodents, including the reservoir species of Lassa fever, and found this is widespread and does not neatly tally against generational or gender lines. Further, it found that the reasons for rodent consumption are multifactorial, including taste preferences, food security, and opportunistic behaviour.

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Hunting of peridomestic rodents and consumption of their meat as possible risk factors for rodent-to-human transmission of Lassa virus in the Republic of Guinea

This study comparing two regions in Guinea, Pita and Gueckedou, observed three major risks for Lassa virus transmission: rodent infestation, uncovered food and hunting of peridomestic rodents as protein source. Hunting and preparation of rodents was identify as a specific risk, however more research is needed to ascertain the age and sex-specific risk factors, sociocultural and economical leading to rodent consumption.

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On the origin of Ebola: Biomedical discourse versus popular interpretations in Macenta in Guinea

This resource describes the use of participative observation, informal conversations and in-depth interviews to identify rumours surrounding Ebola, their sources, and to understand the local population’s perception and knowledge about the history and origin of the Ebola outbreak in Guinea. 

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Popular concerns about medical research projects in sub-Saharan Africa – a critical voice in debates about medical research ethics

This resource aims to move beyond the dismissal of stories about blood-stealing and trade in body parts as ‘mere’ rumour, based on erroneous belief or traditional superstition, and to instead appreciate them as modern commentaries on social relations that involve, and extend far beyond, scientific medical research.

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Speaking with vampires: Rumor and history in colonial Africa

This book presents and interprets vampire stories from East and Central Africa as a way of understanding the world as the storytellers did. Using gossip and rumour as historical sources in their own right, it assesses the place of such evidence, oral and written, in historical reconstruction.

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