This essay examines the relationship between epidemiological knowledge and AIDS-related discrimination. Much of the discrimination literature poses a relationship of mutual exclusion between the everyday practice of discrimination towards People Living With AIDS and biomedical knowledge about AIDS. We argue that if biomedicine is considered as a representational practice rather than a neutral scientific knowledge, numerous points of continuity can be discerned between biomedicine and discriminatory practices. This essay examines three of these points of continuity. They are: the constitution of the borders of 'risk groups', the need to identify the HIV-positive person, and the notion of the direction of infection as it is used to explain the spread of HIV. Comparisons are drawn between accounts of everyday discrimination and these aspects of epidemiological knowledge about HIV.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Albury, R. (1985), 'Historical Reaction to "New" Diseases', The AustralianJournal of Forensic Sciences, September, 5-12.
2.
Australian Medical Association (1991), Policy on AIDS/HIV.
3.
Bennett, M. (1990), 'Stigmatisation Experiences of Persons with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome', Issues in Mental Health Nursing , 11, 141-154.
4.
Blendon, R. and Donelan, K. (1988), 'Discrimination Against People With AIDS. The Public's Perspective', The New England Journal of Medicine , 319, 15, 1022-1026.
5.
Bochow, M. (1992), 'Attitudes Towards Gay Men in the East and West German Population: Has AIDS Brought About a Significant Change?', paper presented at the Second European Conference on Homosexuality and HIV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 14-16 February.
6.
Bolton, R. (1992), 'AIDS and Promiscuity', Medical Anthropology, 14, 144-223.
7.
Bray, F. and Chapman, S. (1990), 'AIDS and Dentistry in Australia: Knowledge, Infection Control Practices and Attitudes to Treatment in a Random Sample of Australian Dentists', Community Health Studies, 13, 4, 384-393.
8.
Bray, F. and Chapman, S. (1991), 'Community Knowledge, Attitudes and Media Recall About AIDS', Australian Journal of Public Health, 15, 2, 107-113.
9.
Bresolin, L., Rinaldi, R., Henning, J. et al. (1990), 'Attitudes of US Primary Care Physicians about HIV Disease and AIDS', AIDS Care, 2, 2, 117-125.
10.
Buckham, C., Najman, J. and McCamish, M. (1990), '"Depravity Kills": The Foundations of Medical Students'Attitudes Towards AIDS', New Doctor, 54, 7-10.
11.
Chamberland, M. and Curran, J. (1990), 'Epidemiology and Prevention of AIDS and HIV' , in G. Mandell, R. Douglas, and J. Bennett (eds.), Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases, 3rd edn, New York, Churchill Livingstone .
12.
Chavigny, K., Turner, S. and Kibrick, A. (1989), 'Epidemiology and Health Policy Imperatives for AIDS', in P. O'Malley (ed.), The AIDS Epidemic. Private Rights and Public Interest, Boston, Beacon Press.
13.
Commonwealth AIDS Research Grants Epidemiology Advisory Committee (1990), 'The Role of Epidemiology in Controlling HIV Disease in Australia', National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research, Sydney, Australia.
14.
Commonwealth Department of Community Services and Health (1989), National HIV/AIDS Strategy. A Policy Information Paper, Canberra, Australian Government Publishing Service.
15.
Crawford, J., Turtle, A. and Kippax, S. (1990), 'Student Favoured Strategies for AIDS Avoidance ', Australian Journal of Psychology, 42, 2, 167-196.
16.
Crofts, N. and Hay, M. (1991), 'Entry of Human Immunodeficiency Virus into a Population of Injecting Drug Users, Victoria, 1990', The Medical Journal of Australia, 155, 278-382.
17.
Fleck, L. (1979), Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact, Chicago and London, University of Chicago Press.
18.
Francis, D. and Kaslow, R. (1989), 'Prevention: General Considerations', in R. Kaslow and D. Francis (eds.), The Epidcmiology of AIDS. Expression, Occurrence, and Control of Hunian Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Infection , New York and Oxford, Oxford University Press.
19.
Gupta, S. and Anderson, R. (1992), 'Sex, AIDS and Mathematics', New Scientist, 1838, 34-38.
20.
Kane, S. and Mason, T. (1992), '"IV Drug Users" and "Sex Partners": the Limits of Epidemiological Categories and the Ethnography of Risk', in G. Herdt and S. Lindenbaum (eds.), The Time of AIDS. Social Analysis, Theory, and Method, Newbury Park, London and New Delhi, Sage Publications.
21.
Kelly, J., St. Lawrence, J., Smith, S. et al. (1987), 'Stigmatisation of AIDS Patients by Physicians' , American Journal of Public Health, 77, 7, 789-791.
22.
Kippax, S., Tillett, G., Crawford, J. et al. (1991), Discrimination in the Context of AIDS: Disease and Deviance, Monograph, National Centre for HIV Social Research, Macquarie University, Sydney.
23.
Kitzinger, J. (1991), 'Judging by Appearances: Audience Understandings of the Look of Someone with HIV', Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 1, 155-163.
24.
Lupton, D. (1992), 'Moral Threats and Sexual Punishment: Discourses on AIDS in the Australian Press', Doctoral Thesis, Department of Community Medicine, University of Sydney, Sydney , Australia.
25.
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (1981), 'Karposi's Sarcoma and Pneumocystis Pneumonia Among Homosexual Men — New York City and California', July 3, 30, 25, 305-308.
26.
Moss, A., Osmond, D., Bacchetti, P. et al. (1987), 'Risk Factors for AIDS and HIV Seropositivity in Homosexual Men', The American Journal of Epidemiology, 125, 1035-1047.
27.
New South Wales Anti-Discrimination Board ( 1992), Discrimination - The Other Epidemic. Report of the Inquiry into HIV and AIDS Related Discrimination, Sydney, Australia.
28.
Oppenheimer, G. (1992), 'Causes, Cases, and Cohorts: The Role of Epidemiology in the Historical Construction of AIDS', in E. Fee and D. Fox (eds.), AIDS. the Making of a Chronic Disease, Berkeley, University of California Press.
29.
Patton, C. (1990), Inventing AIDS, New York, Routledge.
30.
Rompalo, A. and Handsfield, H. (1989), 'Overview of Sexually Transmitted Diseases in Homosexual Men', in P. Ma and D. Armstrong (eds.), AIDS and Infections of Homosexual Men, Boston, Butterworths .
31.
Scheutz, F. (1990), 'HIV Infection and Dental Care: Views and Experiences Among HIV-Seropositive Patients', AIDS Care, 3, 1, 37-42.
32.
Susser, M. (1973), Causal Thinking in the Health Sciences. Concepts and Strategies of EpidemiologyNew York, Oxford University Press.
33.
Tindall, B. and Tillett, G. (1990), 'HIV-Related Discrimination', AIDS4, Supplement 1, S251-S256.
34.
Treichler, P. (1987), 'AIDS, Homophobia and Biomedical Discourse: An Epidemic of Signification', in D. Crimp (ed.), AIDS: Cultural Analysis, Cultural Activism, Cambridge, Massachusetts, MIT Press.
35.
Waldby, C., Kippax, S. and Crawford, J. (1993), 'Cordon Sanitaire: Clean and Unclean Women in the AIDS Discourse of Young Men', in P. Aggleton , P. Davies and G. Hart (eds.), AIDS: The Second Decade, London, The Falmer Press.
36.
Watney, S. (1987), Policing Desire: Pornography, AIDS and the MediaLondon, Methuen.
37.
Winkelstein, W., Padian, N., Rutherford, G. et al. (1989), 'Homosexual Men', in R. Kaslow and D. Francis (eds.), The Epidemiology of AIDS. Expression, Occurrence, and Control of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Infection, New York and Oxford, Oxford University Press.
