Présentation
As a follow-up to ANRS funding for a feasibility study (ANRS 12232), I received in 2011 funding from ANRS for an in-depth anthropological study of hepatitis B and vaccination in Bobo Dioulasso and the Cascades region of Burkina Faso, and in Bangui and selected villages of the Central African Republic. Although many studies have been conducted by virologists and epidemiologists on hepatitis B, there are few or no published anthropological studies to my knowledge of the illness or its vaccination in sub-Saharan Africa, where HBV is highly endemic. This study, then, is among the first of its kind. In investigating local (lay and medical) understandings of and practices around hepatitis B and of routine vaccination, our goal is to develop recommendations to vaccination and public health authorities to improve routine vaccination coverage according to the recommended vaccination calendar, and to develop educational campaigns concerning the prevention of hepatitis B.
The Hepatitis B vaccination project is conducted in collaboration with Abdoulaye Traoré (Groupe de Recherche Action en Santé, Burkina Faso), Louis Bainilago (Université de Bangui, République Centrafricaine), and Fabienne Hejoaka (IRD).