Schistosomiasis and its portrayal on elementary school students posters

Abstract

Posters prepared by students in the northeast of Brazil for the III National Schistosomiasis Poster Contest, sponsored by the Health Ministry's Special Schistosomiasis Control Program, produced four major types of posters expressing different attitudes toward the problem of Schistosomiasis: posters showing a purely negative attitude (ex.; "Do not bathe in contaminated rivers"); those showing a purely positive attitude "Use the latrine"; and the mixed posters, a combination of the first, divided into two subtypes. The first of these subtypes projected a message about an undersirable behavior and an alternative to it; whereas, the second subtype presented the problem's elements but without relating them to alternatives. The last, that is, the fourth, type gave straight didatic or technical explanations of Schistosomiasis. The proposals for confronting Schistosomiasis which were projected through the official educational messages by the students' posters present a strategy of fundamental change and, in a short period of time, of primitive behavior. To avoid jolts of cultural shock, a more gradual strategy was suggested - one that would respect the cultural habits and values of the communities affected.