| Distance from health facility |
| A 20-year-old male farmer said, “In rural areas sometimes the health facility is very far so reaching there may be a problem, that is why they go to the herbalist.”
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“Even me, I can't go all the way. That place (hospital) is too far. Then maybe you are weak and you can't walk all the distance, and maybe you don't have money for a bus. You will end up going to a herbalist.” expressed a 24-year-old female youth from Rachuonyo. |
| Beliefs |
| A 48-year-old male farmer said “We have people who think about drinking twenty-four hours…When they do feel sick after coming from fishing the only thing they think about is chang'aa (alcoholic beverages) and bhang (marijuana) to cheer them up. When they are drunk they believe they are resistant to pain; they don't feel any pain thereby assuming they are now well; meanwhile the disease is developing.”
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“Luos believe that if they see something strange especially that of urinating blood then they would take it that her/his child has been bewitched… and therefore he has to go to the witchdoctor for consultation on that particular issue. So this issue of witchcraft is one of the barriers that hinder people from going to the hospital for appropriate treatment of bilharzia.” reported a 35-year-old adult female from Nyakach. |
| Lack of drugs |
| A male student in Kisumu West who is 23 years old said “If you go to the hospital and find there are no drugs, after second trials then the third one you will not go because you will suspect that there's no drugs.”
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| Long queues |
| A 34-year-old male farmer, “What do happen that can make people to give up is that you may find, for example, you go to a particular hospital in the community and find a long queue. When it reaches lunch hour, then nurses will leave and … this makes people to give up.”
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“If you go to the hospital perhaps you have accompanied a sick person to the hospital in the morning…, you find that nurses are reluctant to attend to the patient fast. You find that the patient is on the waiting bench but if you talk to the nurses.., they do not act immediately. This drives people away from the hospital saying that if you go to such and such hospital, then nurses are relaxed just telling stories. People are not happy with that hospital when such things do happen… So this makes people to give up on a health facility.” said a 35-year-old male business owner from Bondo. |
