Paper short abstract:

N95 respirator masks do more than physically “contain” TB. This paper uses containment as a lens to understand N95 masks as social objects which enable stigma.

Paper long abstract:

This paper analyses the role of the N95 respirator mask circulated from state-funded Tuberculosis (TB) treatment programmes to patients who are undergoing treatment for different forms of TB. Although mask-wearing protocol aims to physically "contain" TB, and thus stem the airborne spread of disease, this paper looks at the other properties N95 masks contain as social objects. The very materiality of masks provides insight into patient behaviour towards mask-wearing and stigma. Drawing upon ethnographic research undertaken in Khayelitsha-the largest township in Cape Town, South Africa- masks become mobile agents of sociality, but simultaneously a visible, biomedical disclosure of TB infection for the mask wearer. Using the theoretical construct of containment, the paper argues that masks contain far more than just TB bacilli, saliva or warm breath. Data evidenced different types of containment associated to masks and mask-wearing produced two unintended, yet significant consequences for TB patients outside of clinical spaces. First, the exteriority of a mask enabled forms of stigma and second, the stigma associated with wearing a mask perpetuated a process of "losing face" for mask wearers (Yang et al 2008). N95 respirator masks are a thoroughly social and globalised object and their use, circulation, and disuse, lend valuable insight to global health efforts to prevent and contain TB.