The “People’s Science”:  Contextualising Public Health Policy to Curb Epidemic Diseases

By: Mathew Ncube

It is generally very rare for people these days to discuss or be willing to listen to anyone talking about the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Probably because it has become a notorious “gospel” that we “know” too well. Interestingly a researcher, Heald (2002) recalls in the early1990s seeing a billboard with the message: “Avoiding AIDS is as easy as A..B..C (Abstain, be Faithful and Condomise).” Yet one may ask: if it so easy to avoid HIV/AIDS why are we still battling with an epidemic that was discovered as early as the 1980s in some countries, for example 1985 in Botswana? Each year statistics are released concerning this subject and one is tempted to vehemently dismiss any simplicity to the subject. It is undeniable that much has been invested and done in research and medical intervention to curtail the effects of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. For example no one can deny the great impact of Anti-Retroviral drugs (ARVs) in saving many lives across the world.

The aim of my discussion is NOT to engage with the HIV/AIDS statistics, but is to lead a discussion into understanding the dilemma of public intervention strategies that heavily rely on the biomedical approach and disregard the “people’s science”. Scientific research is very important and that is undeniable, we probably all go to doctors when we fall ill. The focus of the discussion is on how interpretation of official (biomedical) messages at the local level can affect reception (or otherwise) of the intended messages and hence the people’s health-seeking behaviour. The interpretations at the local level pertain to how messages about a disease are defined and redefined in prevailing cultural idioms of ordinary people (Heald 2002:1). It is Heald’s conviction that anthropological approaches are needed to contextualise alternative discourses of HIV (Heald, 2002:1). As future leaders or policy makers, I believe it is beneficial for us to engage in these issues from an anthropological perspective especially given that we are sometimes very eager “to go out there and save the world.”

I have just taken HIV/AIDS as a case study, and I use research conducted in South Africa but I encourage you to read widely even about other diseases as well including e-bola and TB. I have provided below a list of the main sources I would use for my discussion. Participants are strongly encouraged to read widely on this subject.

Recommended references:

Ashforth, A & Nattrass, N. 2006. The Quest for Healing in South Africa’s Age of AIDS. Centre for Social Science Research AIDS and Society Research Unit. Working Paper No. 155.

Dickinson, D. 2014. Chapters 1 and 2 of: A different kind of AIDS: folk and lay theories in South African Townships. Johannesburg: Fanele.

Heald, S. 2002. It’s never easy as ABC: Understandings of AIDS in Botswana. African Journal of AIDS Research. 1: 1-10.

Jonny Steinberg. 2008. Three Letter Plague: A young man’s journey through a great epidemic. Cape Town: Jonathan Ball.

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