Suchergebnisse

In January 2020 the Cuban government launched a rapid and comprehensive multisectoral response to the threat posed by SARS-CoV-2. This response built upon the strengths of the nation's public health infrastructure, including an expansive health professional workforce experienced with prior epidemics (e.g., dengue, HIV, and Ebola). It also revealed the challenges posed by the vulnerabilities of aging and weak municipal infrastructures. Deteriorating housing, poor airflow, and sweltering heat undermined adherence to lockdown measures, putting those over age sixty—an increasingly large proportion of Cuba's population—at particular risk. I discuss challenges posed by a rapidly graying population, vulnerabilities and increasing inequality stemming from Raul Castro's 2009 economic reforms, and the island's struggle to address its precarious housing stock to highlight the severe difficulties sheltering in place posed for the most vulnerable: elderly Cubans living without family support. The COVID-19 pandemic crisis has underscored the multiple forms infrastructure—including pipes, energy grids, and social networks—takes on the island, and the implications infrastructural strain and weakness have for maintenance of the socialist state and its continued provision of universal health care, housing, and nutrition.

Between 1988 and 1995, the first randomized controlled trial (RCT) of breast self-exam (BSE) was conducted in Shanghai, China. Subsequent policy recommendations transformed the landscape of breast cancer screening in North America as practice guidelines shifted from "BSE" toward "breast awareness." Critiques of the study raised issues of race, regionalism, and difference. I turn to Margaret Lock's concept "local biology" to tease out the complexities of these arguments, and expand upon it to consider the impact of local ecologies of screening on receipt and implementation of international behavioral clinical trial results. The case study of the Shanghai trial illuminates conflicts and controversies around what constitutes evidence in breast cancer prevention research, and for whom.

Drawing upon the empirical scholarship and research expertise of contributors from all settled continents and from diverse life settings and economies, Viral Loads illustrates how the COVID-19 pandemic, and responses to it, lay bare and load onto people's lived realities in countries around the world. A crosscutting theme pertains to how social unevenness and gross economic disparities are shaping global and local responses to the pandemic, and illustrate the effects of both the virus and efforts to contain it in ways that amplify these inequalities. At the same time, the contributions highlight the nature of contemporary social life, including virtual communication, the nature of communities, neoliberalism and contemporary political economies, and the shifting nature of nation states and the role of government. Over half of the world's population has been affected by restrictions of movement, with physical distancing requirements and self-isolation recommendations impacting profoundly on everyday life but also on the economy, resulting also, in turn, with dramatic shifts in the economy and in mass unemployment. By reflecting on how the pandemic has interrupted daily lives, state infrastructures and healthcare systems, the contributing authors in this volume mobilise anthropological theories and concepts to locate the pandemic in a highly connected and exceedingly unequal world. The book is ambitious in its scope – spanning the entire globe – and daring in its insistence that medical anthropology must be a part of the growing calls to build a new world.

Cancer is a transnational condition involving the unprecedented flow of health information, technologies, and people across national borders. Such movement raises questions about the nature of therapeutic citizenship, how and where structurally vulnerable populations obtain care, and the political geography of blame associated with this disease. This volume brings together cutting-edge anthropological research carried out across North and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia, representing low-, middle- and high-resource countries with a diversity of national health care systems. Contributors ethnographically map the varied nature of cancer experiences and articulate the multiplicity of meanings that survivorship, risk, charity and care entail. They explore institutional frameworks shaping local responses to cancer and underlying political forces and structural variables that frame individual experiences. Of particular concern is the need to interrogate underlying assumptions of research designs that may lead to the naturalizing of hidden agendas or intentions. Running throughout the chapters, moreover, are considerations of moral and ethical issues related to cancer treatment and research. Thematic emphases include the importance of local biologies in the framing of cancer diagnosis and treatment protocols, uncertainty and ambiguity in definitions of biosociality, shifting definitions of patienthood, and the sociality of care and support.

Purpose California's failed attempts to enact a statewide sugary beverage tax presents an opportunity to advance understanding of advocacy coalition behavior. We investigate the participation of advocacy coalitions in California's statewide sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax policy debate. Design Document analysis of legislative bills and newspaper articles collected in 2019. Setting California. Method A total of 11 SSB tax-related bills were introduced in California's legislature between 2001-2018 according to the state's legislative website. Data sources include legislative bill documents (n = 94) and newspaper articles (n = 138). Guided by the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF), we identify advocacy coalitions involved in California's SSB tax debate and explore strategies and arguments used to advance each coalitions' position. Results Two coalitions (public health, food/beverage industry) were involved in California's statewide SSB tax policy debate. The public health coalition had higher member participation and referred to scientific research evidence while the industry coalition used preemption and financial resources as primary advocacy strategies. The public health coalition frequently presented messaging on the health consequences and financial benefits of SSB taxes. The industry coalition responded by focusing on the potential negative economic impact of a tax. Conclusion Multiple attempts to enact a statewide SSB tax in California have failed. Our findings add insight into the challenges of enacting an SSB tax considering industry interference. Results can inform future efforts to pass evidence-based nutrition policies.

The goal of this project was to explore family communication dynamics and their implications for smoking cessation. We conducted 39 in-depth dyadic and individual qualitative interviews with 13 immigrant smoker–family member pairs of Vietnamese ( n = 9 dyads, 18 individuals) and Chinese ( n = 4 dyads, 8 individuals) descent, including seven current and six former smokers and 13 family members. All 13 dyadic and 26 individual interviews were analyzed using a collaborative crystallization process as well as grounded theory methods. We identified three interrelated pathways by which tobacco use in immigrant Vietnamese and Chinese families impacts family processes and communication dynamics. Using a two-dimensional model, we illustrate how the shared consequences of these pathways can contribute to a dynamic of avoidance and noncommunication, resulting in individual family members "suffering in silence" and ultimately smoking being reinforced. We discuss the implications of these findings for development of smoking cessation interventions.