Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 11, 2026

The Madagascar Hissing Cockroach as an Alternative Non-mammalian Animal Model to Investigate Virulence, Pathogenesis, and Drug Efficacy
Published on: November 24, 2017
[Brua as an explanatory model for diseases]
Abstract:
A 26-year-old woman from the island of Aruba who had been living in the Netherlands for ten years felt she was misunderstood by the various health professionals she had consulted because of her fear that she was being poisoned and would soon die. Due to her background en her belief in brua, she attributed her symptoms and her illness to 'voodoo', allegedly practiced by members of her husband's family in connection with relationship problems. A culture-sensitive approach to the patient, along with thorough psychiatric and neurological tests, yielded a surprising result. Our findings emphasise how important it is for us as health professionals to acquaint ourselves with explanatory models of the diseases of our patients, and how vital it is for us to be aware of a patient's background, particularly if the patient is of foreign descent.
More Related Videos
09:02An Experimental Model to Study Tuberculosis-Malaria Coinfection upon Natural Transmission of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Plasmodium berghei
Published on: February 17, 2014
13:00The Insect Galleria mellonella as a Powerful Infection Model to Investigate Bacterial Pathogenesis
Published on: December 11, 2012
Related Concept Videos
Colonisation of Pathogens
Models of Health Promotion and Illness Prevention II
The agent-host-environment model states that disease results...
Models of Health Promotion and Illness Prevention I
The health belief model (HBM) attempts to predict health-related behavior in specific belief patterns. According to the HBM, a person's...
Microbial Interactions: Parasitism
Infectious Diseases and Their Occurrence