Lessons of Emergence: HIV, Ebola, Zika, and infectious Diseases of the Future
Moderator: Eleanor Sterling (Center for Biology and Conservation, American Museum of Natural History)
Jacklyn Lacey (American Museum of Natural History)
“Stigma, Anxiety, and Resistance in Social Perceptions of Disease Emergence: HIVs, Ebola, and Zika.”
When a locally-impactful illness emerges as a globally-recognized threat (Kleinman 1980, 1988), global health experts tend to regard local ethnomedical beliefs and practices as liabilities rather than as assets particularly in the case of tropical diseases. Western biomedical researchers and international health professionals often dismiss local narratives of disease emergence, especially if such ethnomedical accounts are perceived to be incompatible with public health messaging, response mechanisms, and policies. In emerging infectious disease (EID) hotspots (Brown and Kelly 2014), acute crises augment tensions that emerge when local communities feel their knowledge systems are disregarded, while nonlocal public health practitioners are frustrated by disinterest or resistance to the behavioral interventions they introduce. These global/local tensions manifest most visibly during outbreaks, but the precipitating interactions begin earlier. This is particularly the case of diseases that were formerly NTDs but have risen to international prominence, including HIV/AIDS, Ebola and now Zika, because ethnomedical explanations for disease emergence, diagnosis, treatment and prevention are elaborate and are embedded in wider cultural and political histories. This paper addresses multidisciplinary methodologies for attenuating these tensions with a focus on fostering greater inclusion of local narratives in increasingly globalizing disease ”emergences.”
