Re-visioning Local Biologies: HIV-2 and the Pattern of Differential Valuation in Biomedical Research

Abstract

The discovery of HIV-2, a distinctly West African variant of HIV, is often portrayed as the result of a straightforward, if serendipitous, error. This article reframes the history of how HIV-2 came to be a knowable scientific identity. Relying on narratives from an African laboratory and clinic, it suggests that the rise and fall of HIV-2 as a viable research entity is indicative of a differential visibility and valuation of both human bodies and viruses. Understanding how HIV-2 emerged as a local biology reveals the complex set of relations that contemporary African scientists face in navigating local moral economies and the mercurial politics of the contemporary global health industry.

Keywords:

• anthropology of medical research
• experimental value
• HIV
• mobility
• West Africa

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research was supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and a McGill Social Science and Humanities Research Grant. I am grateful for the helpful comments of three anonymous reviewers, and the invaluable support and feedback provided by Vinh-Kim Nguyen and Sean Brotherton. Above all, I am grateful to Professor Mboup and his colleagues at the LBV, and the individuals who graciously shared their stories with me.

Notes

The narratives and analysis that I present here are based on ethnographic fieldwork at the LBV and the Institut d'Hygiène Sociale (IHS). I began to work with the LBV and IHS in 1999, but the data presented here were gathered during a year and a half of fieldwork from 2006 to 2007. During that time I carried out observations and formal interviews with staff and partners, and participated in various lab activities: bench work, rural sample collection, conference planning, and proposal writing. Fieldwork at IHS consisted of observation and participation in group discussions, and interviews with current and former clinicians, social workers, and 20 registered female workers.

According to the most recent surveillance data, Senegal's registered female sex workers have an overall infection rate of 19.8% (Conseil Nationale de la Lutte Contre le Sida 2008).

For a more detailed discussion of Senegal's sex worker registration and its relationship to HIV-2 research, see Gilbert (2010) chapter four. See Poleykett (2012) on the politics of enrolment at IHS and the role that ‘clandestine’ (i.e., unregistered) prostitutes play in the geography of sex work in Dakar.

HIV-2 is believed to have made the zoonotic jump from sooty mangabeys to humans around 1940 in Guinea-Bissau, Senegal's neighbor to the south (Schim van der Loeff 2003).

With the exception of prominent researchers whose published work makes them easy to identify, I have used pseudonyms to protect the anonymity of researchers.

The term moral economy was originally developed by Edward P. Thompson (1971), and refers to the value systems employed by communities in response to external forces. The use of moral economy here has been informed in part by Daston's (1995:7) concept of “the moral economy of science,” as well as Nguyen's notion of moral economy, where familial-like social relationships lay in stark contrast to an imposed “self-help” model promoted by international development agencies (2010:83).

The number of HIV-2 infections among Dakar's cohort of FSWs dropped from 8% to 4% between 1985 and 2004 (Hamel et al. 2007). Small numbers have always been a hallmark of HIV-2 research in Senegal. As Mboup adroitly explained, diminished interest in the Senegalese cohort is not solely an epidemiological issue; it is emblematic of a paradigmatic shift that links big science with good science. For more on this linkage and how it relates to HIV-2 research in Guinea Bissau, see Gilbert (2010) chapter 7.

Such liminal figures characterize the public health scene in Senegal. See, for example, Tousignant's (Forthcoming) portrayal of Senegalese pharmacists as “private agents of public health.” Buoyed by monies from the private sector, pharmacists nonetheless act as servants to the public.

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Hannah Gilbert

HANNAH GILBERT received her PhD in medical anthropology from McGill University and her bachelor's degree from Mount Holyoke College. Her research interests include the biosocial aspects of HIV infection, global inequality, anthropological engagement with science, and the ethnography of medical research.