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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