The Gender Agenda in the Control of Tropical Diseases: A Review of Current Evidence

1 Sep 2005

Source: WHO/TDR (see original article)

Comments

Review published in the "Special Topics in Social, Economic and Behavioural (SEB) Research" Series, No. 4, published by the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), World Health Organization, Geneva.

Available online PDF at: www.who.int

The concept of gender describes the roles assigned to men and women by culture and society, how they are played out, and how they relate to each other at the individual and broader socio-political levels.

The last two decades have seen an increase in research that has produced gender analyses of a number of tropical and infectious diseases. The TDR Programme has, for a number of years, placed particular emphasis on gender research and continues to do so.

This new publication provides a major review of gender issues in TDR diseases. A first major section summarizes evidence on how gender roles influence exposure to infection, perception of disease, response to illness and disease, quality of care and compliance with treatment. A second major section reviews gender issues for all ten TDR diseases. The review concludes with recommendations for advancing the gender research agenda in tropical disease research.