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. 2022 Apr;41(3):257-271.
doi: 10.1080/01459740.2022.2037083. Epub 2022 Mar 4.

Antibiotics and the Biopolitics of Sex Work in Zimbabwe

Antibiotics and the Biopolitics of Sex Work in Zimbabwe

Salome Manyau et al. Med Anthropol. 2022 Apr.

Abstract

The advent of antibiotics transformed the global public health landscape, dramatically improving health outcomes. Drawing on historical and ethnographic research on sex work in Zimbabwe, we examine the role of antibiotics in the management of sexually transmitted infections among sex workers, from punitive colonial approaches to "empowerment"-based discourses. We illustrate how programs for sex workers, while valued by these women, are narrow, exclusionary, and enact a pharmaceuticalized form of governance that hangs on the efficacy of antibiotics. With antibiotics' efficacy under threat, we consider how latent colonial logics are in danger of being reactivated to control both infections and women.

Keywords: Zimbabwe; antibiotics; antimicrobial resistance; global health; sex work.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Salome Manyau is a PhD candidate at LSHTM; her PhD work focuses on the anthropology of antibiotics and antimicrobial resistance in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Justin Dixon is Assistant Professor of Medical Anthropology at LSHTM. He has been concerned with explicating the architectures of global health and how these shape disease classification and management in the global south.

Norest Mutukwa is a qualitative researcher at Biomedical Research and Training Institute in Zimbabwe.

Faith Kandiye is a qualitative researcher at Biomedical Research and Training Institute in Zimbabwe.

Paula Palanco Lopez is a medical anthropologist with a background in development studies and communication.

Eleanor E. MacPherson is a research associate (PhD) based at Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Trust in Blantyre. She is a social scientist specializing in gender theory.

Rashida A. Ferrand is a professor in International Health at LSHTM. She is a specialist in sexual health and is based in Zimbabwe where she directs the Zimbabwe-LSHTM Research Partnership.

Clare I. R. Chandler is Professor in Medical Anthropology at LSHTM where she is Director of the Antimicrobial Resistance Centre and leads the Anthropology of Antimicrobial Resistance research group.

References

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