Infantile respiratory illnesses and poverty: Consequence in the life of the children who live in a northeastern urban settlement of Brazil

The Literature shows that infantile respiratory illnesses represent a problem of Public Health in the World. In developing countries the aggravation of these illnesses occurs mainly in poor areas and attributed the worsening economic condition of life in those places, such as: precarious condition of housing, lack of sanitation and disability in health services. This study analyses social and cultural processes related to infantile respiratory illnesses. Ethnography study was carried between 2002 and 2005 in an urban settlement, Northeastern Brazil. In-dept interviews, participant observation and documentary information were conducted with resident twenty-two key informants. Interpretative anthropology approach was used to analyze of the results. The results revealed a classification model of the etiology of the illness in two types: endogenous and exogenous, which dominated the exogenous, due to socio-economic conditions of  families (lack of food, lack of hygiene of the home and lack of environmental sanitation).The fever, normal fever, cold,  splashing, run the nose, cough with phlegm and cough without phlegm, flu, 'forgo' accelerated, breathing difficult, shortness of breath, tightness in the chest, throat tightness, accelerated heart in the chest and wheezing. Symptoms associated with the informants respiratory problems more common. With the severity of asthmatic bronchitis, pneumonia strong, dry lung, avian badly cured; some linked with cardiac problems and even in death. Technical therapies are indicated for the infantile respiratory problems, although they acknowledge some of these problems that have no cure or effective treatment, as in the case of fatigue or asthmatic bronchitis. All know a single and effective treatment, for whatever the infantile respiratory problems. There was an influence of poverty and the environment reflected in the behavior and actions of the subjects who suffer respiratory problems in urban settlement, particularly the suffering of children and their mothers in everyday life.