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Imagining viral hepatitis in Burkina Faso

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2020

Tamara Giles-Vernick  and
Fabienne Hejoaka
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Abstract

This article explores ‘imaginings’ around hepatitis B in Burkina Faso and their historical genealogies. Hepatitis B is a viral infection afflicting the liver, but asymptomatic carriers may fall ill decades after exposure to the virus. Drawing from ethnographic interviews, we analyse how people living with hepatitis B in Burkina Faso grapple with incertitude about the course of their infections, the possibilities for healing and their illness's influence on social relations by ‘imagining’: that is, diverging momentarily from narratives about their diagnostic and therapeutic pathways to imagine alternative pasts and future consequences of this illness. We investigate how those living with hepatitis B use these imaginings to grapple with absences – of a certain future, of knowledge and of care – the historical genealogies that give rise to these absences, and their longer-term consequences. These ephemeral imaginings emerge from an ‘entanglement’ of the virus, epidemiological incertitude about its course and absences within Burkina Faso's health system and global health policies, which are themselves the consequence of specific historical processes.

Résumé

Résumé

Cet article explore les « imaginaires » de l'hépatite B au Burkina Faso et leurs généalogies. L'hépatite B (VHB) est une infection virale touchant le foie, dont les porteurs chroniques peuvent longtemps demeurer asymptomatiques et tomber malade plusieurs décennies après avoir contacté le virus. A partir des entretiens et d'observations ethnographiques, nous analysons comment les patients font face aux incertitudes liées à l’évolution de la maladie, aux perspectives de guérison et à l'influence de l'infection sur les relations sociales. Se distanciant des récits de leurs itinéraires diagnostiques et thérapeutiques, ils imaginent d'autres passés et les conséquences futurs de cette maladie. Nous étudions comment ces personnes vivant avec l'hépatite B utilisent ces rêves pour gérer certaines absences d'un avenir, de savoirs, de soins, des généalogies historiques qui ont produit ces absences, et leurs conséquences au long-terme. Ces rêves éphémères sont produits par l'enracinement du virus, de l'incertitude épidémiologique, ainsi que des absences au sein du système de santé Burkinabé et des politiques de santé globale, qui sont elles-mêmes le résultat des processus historiques spécifiques.

Type
Dreaming histories
Information
Africa , Volume 90 , Special Issue 1: Beyond realism: Africa's medical dreams , January 2020 , pp. 77 - 94
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2020

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