Tuberculosis Discourse in South Africa

This book examines how the current day tuberculosis discourse in South Africa is shaped by ideological factors that have led to a dominant focus on biomedical and HIV/AIDS issues. These dominant issues have resulted in the undermining of previously held perceptions surrounding the social causes of tuberculosis. The effect is an individualisation of tuberculosis and its removal from a social context. The book highlights how neo-liberal ideologies of development and state spending have promoted a biomedically reductionist and seemingly "cost-effective" model for tuberculosis treatment that ignores the social context of the disease. In applying this theory to a South African context, it is shown that the states only responsibility is to provide medicinal intervention for tuber-culosis. The actual responsibility for the outcome of health care (i.e.health) is deferred to the individual. As private organisations fill the welfare gaps, citizens are left disempowered by their limited ability to hold the state accountable. The result is an environment that disenfranchises the poor and defeats the purposes of health care, perpetuating the deadly campaign of diseases like tuberculosis.