Paper short abstract:

My paper explores the ongoing interplay between local and global stakeholders to deal with and define measles in Sindh to further understand global health apparatus and bio-politics in a regional perspective.

Paper long abstract:

The present paper is based on my recent PhD fieldwork on two consecutive outbreaks of measles, which occurred in 2012 & 13 in Sindh. This paper deals with the ways global health is to be contested, negotiated, and used as an apparatus encompassing various local as well as global actors in Pakistan. For local actors measles is a sacred illness, while global actors - e.g. WHO - consider it a disease as well as a threat to inhabitants of other countries across the globe.

All stakeholders had different concerns and interests while dealing with the said outbreaks. Also, their envisioned worth and value, meanings and measures pertaining to life differed from each other.

The paper will highlight various justifications and responses given by involved actors regarding their interventions towards measles. The paper will present a critical analysis of interventions and their justifications for saving lives and devising prophylaxis against potential threats.

The originality of this paper lies in the analysis of an understudied case (Pakistan) in order to give a regional perspective regarding the ongoing interplay between geopolitics and biopolitics through the lenses of global health and 'global assemblages'.