Paper short abstract:

Public health and medical anthropologists read tuberculosis as two distinct narratives. This paper will explore how the opposing narratives on TB have fragmented our overall understanding of a once curable disease.

Paper long abstract:

Over the course of the past decade epidemiologists have measured the increasing incidence of Tuberculosis (TB), and more alarmingly, Drug Resistant forms of TB (DR-TB around the world. Local and international strategies for infection control and treatment protocol are essential in addressing the complicated conditions of TB and DR-TB. Public health and anthropology are working together to develop a more complete understanding of contagion, adherence and non-adherence to medication, migration, infection-control and treatment solutions. However, conducting collaborative research does not necessarily lead to effective solutions, the work often exposes the vulnerabilities and shortcomings of the other discipline, and as a result, research becomes increasingly a battle between the various schools of thought rather than the development for effective solutions. This paper examines DR-TB as two distinct narratives, one exposed by public health and the other by medical anthropologists, and these opposing narratives have fragmented the overall understanding of TB. To examine TB as text with various readings and interpretations will help to reveal the fissures and corroborations between the varying schools of thought to create a cohesive narrative that is reflective of the epidemiological and social concerns of what was once a curable disease.