Saris, A. Jamie
(2010)
Of Remedies and Poisons: Recreational
Use of Antiretroviral Drugs in the Social
Imagination of South African Carers.
African Sociological Review, 14.
pp. 62-73.
Abstract
During an ethnographic study of barriers to, and compliance with, antiretroviral (ARV) treatment
in the South Africa’s West Coast region, our team came across a general sense amongst
heath care providers that there was a lively illicit trade in antiretroviral medications. In itself,
this is seen to be a barrier to adherence for many of their patients whose medication is traded to,
or stolen by, drug dealers. Independent anecdotal evidence is emerging about this trade, though
there has been little hard data verifying the existence of a recreational market for ARVs. While
there are rumours that Efavirenz (some of whose side effects are hallucinogenic) is being used
in the manufacture of crystal methamphetamine (locally ‘tik’), such reports, in themselves, do
not seem able to explain the ubiquity (and the confidence) of the belief in this trade amongst
the health care providers with whom we have interacted. This paper explores aspects of the
off-label trade of ARVs (as we have come to know it) and, as importantly, how rumor and
knowledge of this trade has gained increasing currency in the social imagination of health and
social care workers. This, we argue, could precipitate a real crisis in the Government’s public
rollout programme.
| Item Type: |
Article
|
| Keywords: |
Social Imagination; South Africa; antiretroviral treatment; Recreational drugs; HIV/AIDS; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Social Sciences > Anthropology |
| Item ID: |
8379 |
| Depositing User: |
Dr. A. Jamie Saris
|
| Date Deposited: |
27 Jun 2017 17:09 |
| Journal or Publication Title: |
African Sociological Review |
| Publisher: |
CODESRIA |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
Repository Staff Only(login required)
 |
Item control page |
Downloads per month over past year
Origin of downloads
Altmetric
Altmetric