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Can a pill prevent HIV ? Negotiating the biomedicalisation of HIV prevention
Author(s) -
Young Ingrid,
Flowers Paul,
McDaid Lisa
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
sociology of health and illness
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.146
H-Index - 97
eISSN - 1467-9566
pISSN - 0141-9889
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9566.12372
Subject(s) - pre exposure prophylaxis , stigma (botany) , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , negotiation , treatment as prevention , commodification , medicine , psychology , social psychology , family medicine , antiretroviral therapy , political science , psychiatry , viral load , men who have sex with men , law , syphilis , economics , market economy
This article examines how biomedicalisation is encountered, responded to and negotiated within and in relation to new biomedical forms of HIV prevention. We draw on exploratory focus group discussions on pre‐exposure prophylaxis (Pr EP ) and treatment as prevention (TasP) to examine how the processes of biomedicalisation are affected by and affect the diverse experiences of communities who have been epidemiologically framed as ‘vulnerable’ to HIV and towards whom Pr EP and TasP will most likely be targeted. We found that participants were largely critical of the perceived commodification of HIV prevention as seen through Pr EP , although this was in tension with the construction of being medical consumers by potential Pr EP candidates. We also found how deeply entrenched forms of HIV stigma and homophobia can shape and obfuscate the consumption and management of HIV ‐related knowledge. Finally, we found that rather than seeing TasP or Pr EP as ‘liberating’ through reduced levels of infectiousness or risk of transmission, social and legal requirements of responsibility in relation to HIV risk reinforced unequal forms of biomedical self‐governance. Overall, we found that the stratifying processes of biomedicalisation will have significant implications in how TasP, Pr EP and HIV prevention more generally are negotiated.