Crazy Rush for Powdery Tobacco (Sunkho) among Younger Women and girls in Petauke and Chipata districts- Zambia: Is it cultural recovery or birth of a new lifestyle?

Sunkho (snuff) is a fine ground tobacco inhaled as dry powder or dipped in the lip/gum groove or cheek/gum vestibule for sucking as moist tobacco-mixture. In Zambia, culturally, sunkho was purely consumed by the elderly. In recent years however, sunkho has become very popular among younger women and girls. This study explored where users sourced sunkho, how they consumed sunkho and whether users were aware about health-related effects of sunkho. The study was conducted in Chipata and Petauke Districts of Zambia between March and June, 2021.A total of 25 user and non-user participants, broken down as 6 males and 19 females participated in the study. User participants were sampled through snowball sampling method. The study used an explorative research design with a qualitative approach. A single interview-per participant method was used for data collection. This study found that younger women dashed for sunkho to elevate their body temperature from ordinary-warm to unusual-warmer and for vaginal tightening so that a man enjoys memorable and satisfactory sexual pleasure. Some users consumed sunkho based on the underlying belief that sunkho helps to boost CD4 Count in HIV positive patients. This study also found that other younger female users consumed sunkho under the belief that it prevented them from acquiring COVID-19 while others did so out of need for social conformity with the prevailing fashion. The study found low levels of awareness among participants on health-associated risks of sunkho. Since users are continuously inventing methods of consuming sunkho, exposing themselves further to tobacco-associated cancers, this study recommends that health workers conduct aggressive community sensitization campaigns on sunkho and other smokeless tobacco products on health. Institutions offering health-related training programmes to include the use of Smokeless tobacco in their curriculum as a new threat to the emergence of malignancies of unknown origin among users. Ministry of Education to take a critical step in creating awareness to all pupils and students on the dangers of using sunkho and other smokeless tobacco products.