On multiple mosquitoes and the mosquito multiple: disease ecologies and the geographies of vigilância in Sergipe, Brazil
Dias Da Silva Maia, T
Date: 25 September 2023
Thesis or dissertation
Publisher
University of Exeter
Degree Title
PhD in Geography
Abstract
Mosquito-related diseases such as dengue, Zika, chikungunya, and yellow fever are responsible for the death and morbidity of thousands of people and nonhuman mammals in Brazil. This is an ethnographic approach focused on scientists, health workers, governmental administrators, and householders in Sergipe state, northeast Brazil. I ...
Mosquito-related diseases such as dengue, Zika, chikungunya, and yellow fever are responsible for the death and morbidity of thousands of people and nonhuman mammals in Brazil. This is an ethnographic approach focused on scientists, health workers, governmental administrators, and householders in Sergipe state, northeast Brazil. I accessed these people by mixing practices of online interviews and observant participations. These people deal with a constantly high mosquito infestation and viral infection, and with restricted access to the health budget. A set of incoherent and diverse actions comprising vigilância epidemiológica (epidemiological surveillance) and the immunisation of the (human) population are justified under the allegiance of prevention and contingency of mosquito-related diseases in the state. Specifically, I observe activities on mosquito density control aimed at the prevention of dengue, Zika and chikungunya, something leading me to discuss elements of dirt, data and discipline. Then, I analyse the elaboration of yellow fever vigilância, which is an emerging disease in Sergipe, in order to discuss city-forest borders as zones of ecological negotiations. Finally, I analyse four different stories comprising immunity-led imaginaries as a means to speculate future possibilities of living with. Connecting these different ecologies is the notion of a ‘mosquito multiple’, a concept I develop by overlapping the different conceptions as informed by the diverse informants of this thesis.
Doctoral Theses
Doctoral College
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