close search

"Vibrant Entanglements": HIV Biomedicine and Serodiscordant Couples in Papua New Guinea.

Persson A, Kelly-Hanku A, Bell S, Mek A, Worth H, Nake Trumb R

VIEW FULL ARTICLE
  • Journal Medical anthropology

  • Published 15 Nov 2018

  • Volume 38

  • ISSUE 3

  • Pagination 267-281

  • DOI 10.1080/01459740.2018.1530670

Abstract

The global ambition to "end AIDS" hinges on the universal uptake of HIV treatment-as-prevention and is undergirded by the assumption that biomedical technologies have consistent, predictable effects across highly diverse settings. But as anthropologists argue, such technologies are actively transformed by their local encounters, with various constitutive effects. How priority populations, such as HIV "serodiscordant" couples, negotiate treatment-as-prevention remains relatively unknown. We consider the "vibrant entanglements" that can shape couples' engagement with global biomedical technologies in the local context of Papua New Guinea (PNG)-a relatively uncharted biomedical landscape-and what we hope our current research in this setting will achieve.