Paper short abstract:

In this communication we will present how we develop a research methodology to address the challenges of studying the pervasiveness of antibiotics in Ghana from a one health perspective. That is, investigating how health, social, economic, and environmental issues interact.

Paper long abstract:

In this communication we will present the methodology of a project on AMR in Ghana from a one health perspective that is investigating how health, social, economic, and environmental issues interact, that is, how we developed a research methodology to address the challenges of studying the complexity and pervasiveness of antibiotics. We aim at studying the circulation and perception of products used as antibiotics in human and animal health, which include a wide variety of prescribers both professionals and lay actors in the human and animal health fields. As anthropologists we aim at studying what medicines are used as antibiotics (both phytomedicine and allopathic medicine). It implies making exhaustive inventories, a relevant method to support ethnographies, but encompassing a wide variety of actors distributing antibiotics. These include not only pharmacies, chemical shops, herbal shops or veterinary shops. But, being on the field, we discovered that it may also be relevant to study the use of antibiotics in agriculture. Products which are sold in the numerous agrochemical shops one can find in the Ashanti region (a region very much characterized as a major agricultural area in the country). Furthermore, antibiotics circulate everywhere. This involves waste in the environment: domestic waste but also waste from farmers, hospitals, or pharmaceutical producers. It questionned us on the appropriate methodologies to tackle the infinite presence of antibiotics within our research field, complex methodological problems associated with a one health perspective.