«Une éducation thérapeutique très difficile...». Ammalarsi di diabete in Marocco, tra prescrizioni sanitarie, cibo e cultura

In the article the author, starting from different meanings related to the experience of becoming diabetic in Morocco, an Islamic country, discusses the cultural and social components of diabetes mellitus and its therapeutic processes here, according to a medical anthropology perspective. After the description of the biomedical care model of the endocrinological unit in the university hospital of Marrakech, he reports a part of his ethnographic research experience, still open in this context, concerning the participation in the weekly program of hospitalization of such patients, with a focus on cultural meanings conferred to the disease and with a particular attention to issues such as food and Ramadan. In this ethnography the author discusses in more detail the value of a specific educational health practice, that of the preparation of a complete meal by patients during the last day of their hospitalization, as a concrete experience in which bringing together the lessons learned on the proper management of diabetes with some Moroccan traditions.