Cultural drivers and health-seeking behaviours that impact on the transmission of pig-associated zoonoses in Lao People’s Democratic Republic
Infectious Diseases of Poverty·
- DOI
- 10.1186/2049-9957-4-11
- PMID
- 25973203
- PMCID
- PMC4430026
- OpenAlex
- W2115256902
- Study type
- Journal article
- Publisher
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC
- Article type
- journal-article
- Integrity
- current
Why this research matters now
Pig production poses significant health risks through zoonotic disease transmission, yet these diseases are substantially underreported due to similar clinical presentations and inadequate diagnostics. Understanding sociocultural drivers is crucial for disease control, requiring transdisciplinary One Health research to address social determinants of health, health-seeking behaviours, and disease reporting.
Structured evidence summary
Research question
This review examines sociocultural drivers and health-seeking behaviours that influence transmission of eight pig-associated zoonoses suspected to be endemic in Southeast Asia, using Lao PDR as a case study.
Study design
Literature review covering publications from 1990 to present across multiple databases, focusing on eight pig-associated zoonoses (brucellosis, Q fever, trichinellosis, hepatitis E, leptospirosis, Japanese encephalitis, Streptococcus suis, and Taenia solium taeniasis-cysticercosis) and related risks and impacts in Lao PDR.
Population and setting
Smallholder pig farmers in Lao PDR using traditional free-range production systems, with existing information coming mainly from the capital, Vientiane.
Main findings
Many pig-associated zoonoses present with similar clinical syndromes, leading to substantial misdiagnosis and underreporting. Disease burden includes direct livelihood impacts through income reduction and production losses, and indirect impacts through treatment costs and lost work opportunities. Information on sociocultural factors—including ethnicity, culture, food-consumption practices, pig rearing and slaughter, hygiene, sanitation, and health-seeking behaviours—is extremely limited in Lao PDR and the broader Southeast Asian region.
Public-health relevance
Pig production poses significant health risks through zoonotic disease transmission, yet these diseases are substantially underreported due to similar clinical presentations and inadequate diagnostics. Understanding sociocultural drivers is crucial for disease control, requiring transdisciplinary One Health research to address social determinants of health, health-seeking behaviours, and disease reporting.
Important limitations
This summary relies on a single-article abstract and bibliographic metadata. The review itself identifies significant knowledge gaps in Lao PDR, with existing data concentrated in Vientiane, and notes extremely limited published information on knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs regarding pig zoonoses across the Southeast Asian region.
GIDS interpretation
The article's classifier links map to multiple pig-associated zoonotic diseases and Laos, making it discoverable through disease-specific and geographic searches. The One Health and surveillance topic tags indicate relevance to integrated disease monitoring frameworks, while the treatment and transmission dynamics tags support queries on disease control and epidemiological patterns.
Related GIDS surveillance
Literature context does not validate, explain, or change a surveillance signal. Exact and contextual relationships are shown separately.
Evidence relationships
This article has 16 auditable classifier relationships to diseases, places, topics, and study design.