Medicinal markets for non-communicable diseases

Local and historical practices are linked with new ways of perceiving and treating illness. Little is understood about these complex, interconnected therapeutic avenues, nor how they relate to health choices for those with cancers, diabetes, cardiovascular and chronic respiratory diseases.

This project will establish networks between experts from UCL; the Marakwet Research Station; Elgeyo-Marakwet county’s Public Health Unit (Iten hospital); and Academics at the University of Eldoret. It will combine ethnography, network analysis and geographic mapping to pilot a project across three Elgeyo-Marakwet towns.

This project aims to:

• explore and ‘map’ the therapeutic and health ecology in three towns in Elgeyo-Marakwet
• understand different therapeutic paradigms, how they articulate and how they evolve and respond to changing health demands
• explore this health ecology in relation to the growing burden of non-communicable diseases
• develop a more nuanced understanding of the concept of a wider health ecology, and its local and global drivers and networks.

Project leader: Petros Andreadis.

Funder: British Academy/Leverhulme Small Grant.