Undernutrition. Cultural diagnosis and treatment of "runche".

Abstract

THE HIMALAYAN kingdom of Nepal, with a population of 12 million, contains over 30 distinct, different social groups. The Lalitpur District community health project involves 65,000 rural peoples. This program was partly designed to relate health services to traditional concepts of health. This article describes one traditionally accepted diagnosis and the use made of it in the delivery of health services. A bizarre syndrome termed runche, the crying one, was found in a high percentage of children from 1 to 4 years of age. This was easily recognized by all adults as runche and traditionally interpreted to be a spell placed on the children after being touched by a pregnant woman. The traditional treatment included a series of early morning baths. The runche child was a miserable, whining child who was hard to live with and who refused to eat and cooperate with family activities. The condition often followed episodes