AMR survivors? Chronic living with antimicrobial resistant infections.

Behind the statistics forecasting millions of deaths associated with antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an even greater burden of morbidity leaving many people with long-term chronic illnesses and disability. Despite growing recognition of the importance of inter-sectoral and inter-disciplinary knowledge in forming responses to address this global health threat, there remains a paucity of social science research to understand the social burdens of AMR. In this qualitative study we explore the experiences of people living with chronic AMR infections, their interactions with health providers and therapeutic quests for care, and the effects upon their lives and that of their families and caregivers.

'Willy nilly' doctors, bad patients, and resistant bodies in general public explanations of antimicrobial resistance.

Increased public engagement is a feature of policy and communications focussed on the reduction of antimicrobial resistance. Explaining antimicrobial resistance for general publics has proven difficult and they continue to endorse apparently mistaken knowledge, including the conflation of antimicrobial resistance with the notion of the resistant body. We interviewed members of the general public in Melbourne, Australia, to explore explanatory models for antimicrobial resistance and shed light on the persistence of the resistant body assumption and related concepts.

Beyond resistance: social factors in the general public response to pandemic influenza.

Background: Influencing the general public response to pandemics is a public health priority. There is a prevailing view, however, that the general public is resistant to communications on pandemic influenza and that behavioural responses to the 2009/10 H1N1 pandemic were not sufficient. Using qualitative methods, this paper investigates how members of the general public respond to pandemic influenza and the hygiene, social isolation and other measures proposed by public health.

Biography, pandemic time and risk: Pregnant women reflecting on their experiences of the 2009 influenza pandemic.

During the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, it was identified that women in the third trimester of pregnancy were particularly at risk of serious respiratory distress. At-risk women were advised to seek vaccination, avoid contact with anyone unwell, maintain hygiene routines and stop smoking. We examine this situation of emergent and intense risk produced at the intersection of individual biography and the historical event of a public health emergency.

Understanding the biopsychosocial aspects of HIV disclosure among HIV-positive gay men in Scotland.

This study presents an interpretative phenomenological analysis of the experiential accounts of HIV-positive gay men. Participants took part in open-ended interviews. Three key-related recurrent themes are presented: 'Disclosure, deliberation and the abject other'; 'Disclosure, care and the valued other' and 'Disclosure and intimate citizenship'.

Advancing biosocial pedagogy for HIV education.

This article develops the concept of biosocial pedagogy in HIV education for this era of expanding biomedical forms of HIV control. With reference to critical pedagogy and teaching and learning materials addressing HIV treatment and prevention, I explain how HIV education can problematize its own role in HIV control. I also discuss how educational practice can be informed by the ethical and political dilemmas that face people affected by HIV.