Dengue and Dualism: Medical Pluralism in a North-Central Urban Marginal Zone of Bangladesh

In the late 1970s, Aurther Kleinman’s concept of medical pluralism was developed and become the central to understanding how cultural values and economic constraints can shape and influence individuals’ health seeking behaviors and take decisions of which healthcare system option they will choose. This ethnographic study in Ershadnagar Resettlement Camp is situated in Gazipur, Bangladesh, it is a peripheral urban marginalized group. This paper explores how the residents of Ershadnagar manage dengue fever by drawing on multiple healthcare systems. Through 27 in-depth and key informant interviews with traditional healers, biomedical practitioners, and community members, This study examines the explanatory models examined that illness shapes by structural constraints and cultural beliefs through the health seeking behaviors. Findings reveal that medical pluralism in Ershadnagar is not merely a cultural remnant but a pragmatic adaptation to conditions of economic precarity, spatial marginalization, and the embedded presence of trusted traditional healers. This research finds that medical pluralism in Ershadnagar is a pragmatic response to social embessedness of traditional healers, limited access and economic precarity but not simply the matter of continuity of culture. Traditional healthcare system remains deeply trusted and widely used in Ershadnagar, while biomedical healthcare system dominates in state health discourse, traditional healing remains widely used and deeply trusted by the community. This pluralistic reality produces both tensions and collaborations between traditional healers and biomedical practitioners. The findings of this study has contributed to make connection with medical anthropology by positioning pluralism within lived experiences of marginalized urban community facing growing health crises like dengue fever. And also this pluralistic setting produces the conflict and cooperation between healers and biomedical practitioners. By situating medical pluralism within the lived experiences of a marginalized urban population, this study contributes to medical anthropology’s broader engagement with informal healthcare systems, trust, and the everyday negotiation of health crises such as dengue fever.