Biocommunicability and the Biopolitics of Pandemic Threats

Abstract

In this article we assess accounts of the H1N1 virus or “swine flu” to draw attention to the ways in which discourse about biosecurity and global health citizenship during times of pandemic alarms supports calls for the creation of global surveillance systems and naturalizes forms of governance. We propose a medical anthropology of epidemics to complement an engaged anthropology aimed at better and more critical forms of epidemic surveillance. A medical anthropology of epidemics provides insights into factors and actors that shape the ongoing production of knowledge about epidemics, how dominant and competing accounts circulate and interact, how different stakeholders (citizens, politicians, journalists, and policymakers) access and interpret information available from different sources—including through a variety of new digital venues—and what they do with it. These insights together provide a compelling agenda for medical anthropology and anyone working in health-related fields.

Key Words:

• A(H1N1) influenza
• biocommunicability
• influenza
• medical anthropology
• swine flu

Notes

According to current WHO guidelines (http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/phase/en/index.html), a Phase 6 (global pandemic phase) alert is characterized by community level outbreaks involving human-to-human spread of a virus into at least two countries in one WHO region and at least one other country in a different WHO region. Nevertheless, WHO declared a Phase 6 alert on June 11, 2009.

http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/identifyingpatients.htm (accessed May 21, 2009).

http://www.grain.org/articles/?id=48 (accessed May 21, 2009).

See for example http://www.kxan.com/dpp/health/swine_flu_conspiracy_theories_swirl (accessed May 3, 2009).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Charles L. Briggs

CHARLES L. BRIGGS is the Alan Dundes Distinguished Professor in the Department of Anthropology of the University of California, Berkeley and the UCB-UC San Francisco Joint Ph.D. Program in Medical Anthropology, and a member of the editorial board of Medical Anthropology. He is the author of eight books, including Stories in the Time of Cholera (with Clara Mantini-Briggs). He is currently researching health news in Cuba, Ecuador, the United States, and Venezuela and is writing a book on racial profiling and biosecuritization in an outbreak of bat-transmitted rabies in Venezuela.

Mark Nichter

MARK NICHTER is Regents Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Arizona and an associate editor of Medical Anthropology. At the University of Arizona, he holds joint appointments in the departments of Family Medicine and the Mel and Enid Zuckerman School of Public Health and coordinates the graduate training program in medical anthropology. He is actively engaged in research related to global health and his most recent book is Global Health: Why Cultural Perceptions, Social Representations, and Biopolitics Matter. Nichter is currently a member of the Institute of Medicine Panel on Emerging Zoonotic Disease Surveillance.