Charles L. Briggs is Alan Dundes Distinguished Professor in the Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, and the author or coauthor of ten books.
Clara Mantini-Briggs, a Venezuelan public health physician, was the National Coordinator of the Dengue Fever Program in Venezuela's Ministry of Health and is a Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. They are coauthors of
Charles L. Briggs is Alan Dundes Distinguished Professor in the Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, and the author or coauthor of ten books.
Clara Mantini-Briggs, a Venezuelan public health physician, was the National Coordinator of the Dengue Fever Program in Venezuela's Ministry of Health and is a Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. They are coauthors of
Reliving the Epidemic: Parents’ Perspectives
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Published:May 2016
This chapter focuses on families who lost children to the mysterious epidemic. In Mukoboina, 10 percent of the population of around eighty died. Parents collectively told testimonios, stories that recounted their frenetic efforts to find a doctor, nurse, or healer who could save the life of one, two, or even three of their children. In Muaina, Florencia Macotera and Indalesio Pizarro recounted the strange symptoms that killed nine-year-old Dalvi and twenty-two-year-old Mamerto, the latter a university student and emerging leader. The last case concerns Mamerto's wife, Elbia Torres Rivas; the team witnessed the progression of her illness, provided palliative care, and participated in her wake and funeral. The parents emphasized how they were mistreated in tertiary care facilities in urban hospitals and their shock and anger upon seeing autopsies, of which they were not asked or informed, stitched on their children's bodies.
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