Résumé
Observations & interviews with health professionals, mothers of sick children, & women from the general population in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, drawn from a larger study exploring the impact of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) on the fight against child diarrhea & malnutrition in Africa, are used to examine the construction of malnutrition as a medical pathology vs a social phenomenon in the Burkina Faso health care system, particularly in nutritional rehabilitation services. A popular perception -- that thinness in children is normal -- serves as an obstacle to the treatment of malnourished children. Health care professionals estimated that 33% of the children admitted to the hospital were likely infected with human immunodeficiency virus. The eruption of AIDS as an underlying cause of malnutrition & the impact of the AIDS epidemic on the functioning of Burkina Faso health care services are discussed. 31 References. Adapted from the source document.