Under construction: the social and cultural politics of hepatitis C in Australia
Dr Suzanne Fraser, Associate Professor Carla Treloar, Associate Professor David Moore
Hepatitis C is a relatively newly identified but heavily stigmatised disease. Its high rates of incidence and prevalence mean it represents a serious public health issue in Australia. The key aim of this new project is to investigate the ways in which hepatitis C is being constituted as a disease medically, socially and culturally in Australia to develop insights into how it might be confronted both medically and socially without further stigmatising those affected by it. To this end, they study poses the following research questions.
- What disease concepts are being mobilised to make sense of and act on hepatitis C?
- What metaphors are circulating in relation to the disease?
- How does hepatitis C's symbolic and practical associations with injecting drug use and HIV act to construct the disease both conceptually and materially?
- What role do distinctions drawn between medically acquired (or iatrogenic) hepatitis C and that associated with injecting drug use play in the symbolic and material construction of hepatitis C?
- How do the wide diversity of symptoms and prognoses related to hepatitis C impact on the way the disease is understood both at a cultural level and among affected individuals?
- How does the way in which treatment for hepatitis C is designed and delivered reflect/instate particular ideas about the disease and those affected by it?
- How do affected individuals construct identities in response to hepatitis C symptoms, diagnosis and treatment?
The project incorporates a range of methods including qualitative interviews with people who have hepatitis C, an analysis of self-help books on hepatitis C, the collation and analysis of Australian hepatitis C prevention education literature, and international medical accounts of the 'identification' of the disease.
The project is a collaboration between the Centre for Women's Studies and Gender Research, Monash, the National Centre in HIV Social Research at the University of New South Wales, and the National Drug Research Institute at Curtin University of Technology.