Being naturalised, being left behind: the HIV citizen in the era of treatment possibility

With around five million people accessing anti-retroviral treatment, which significantly reduces mortality and extends life, the HIV pandemic now exists in a context of treatment possibility, if not access. This paper discusses ways in which the pandemic is becoming naturalised through medicalisation, normalisation and marketisation, and how these processes undermine themselves internally. The paper goes on to examine some further denaturalising discontinuities in how the contemporary HIV era is is lived, which derive from HIV's specific biological, socioeconomic and psychological characteristics, and which leave many at some distance from the relatively hopeful HIV present. The paper argue that naturalisation, and aspects of 'being left behind,' are important elements of HIV experience which require continued attention. Throughout, it examines the significance of naturalising and denaturalising processes for HIV citizenship. The paper draws on narrative data from studies of HIV support in the UK, 1993-present, and in South Africa, 2001-4, to make these arguments.

Citation:
Squire. Corinne. 2010. Being naturalised, being left behind: the HIV citizen in the era of treatment possibility. Critical Public Health, 20, 4: 401-27.