Evidence 4 Action - Fabian Cataldo awarded 2009 New Writer’s Prize

Fabian Cataldo awarded 2009 New Writer’s Prize

The Editorial Board of Sociology of Health and Illness have awarded the 2009 New Writer's Prize to Dr Fabian Cataldo. This is for his article "New Forms of Citizenship and Socio-political Inclusion: Accessing Antiretroviral Treatment in a favela”.

Dr Cataldo is an Evidence for Action researcher, working for the International HIV/AIDS Alliance. He is also a UCL Honorary Research Associate and Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies. The article is based on research he carried out in Brazil.

The panel (Professor Hilary Thomas, Professor Sara Arber and Dr Helen Sweeting) made the following citation about the article:
"Cataldo’s paper makes a significant contribution to understanding the responses of marginalised groups to public health programmes in general, and HIV programmes in particular, through an examination of the Brazilian National AIDS Programme. Based on qualitative fieldwork undertaken in the perilous condition of a favela, and drawing on the concepts of biosocial changes and therapeutic citizenship, the paper explores case histories of recipients to demonstrate the ways in which a public health programme may have socio-political effects in addition to the intended clinical outcomes. The paper is well-written, theoretically informed and of international policy relevance."

Brazil has received praise internationally for its national health policy against HIV. Whilst the ethical stance of the Brazilian programme has been widely applauded, there is a lack of empirical data on how the commitment to equitable and universal HIV prevention and treatment works in practice among the poorest population groups. The paper explores the broad ethics of the Brazilian AIDS programme by investigating how universal access to HIV treatment is being implemented within a favela (shanty town). Data collected through anthropological research show that in settings such as the favelas, the universal character of this public health programme is challenged by a number of issues such as local definitions of illness, problems related to the understanding of and adherence to treatment, structural violence, political alienation, and lack of perspectives about the future. It is also argued that such health intervention has contributed to the promotion of novel attitudes towards individual notions of socio-political participation. These are explored with reference to the notion of therapeutic citizenship, which in the context of a favela neighbourhood translates into a new set of concerns around free access to and availability of treatment, the right to health care and the sustainability of public health policies.

The article can be found in Pharmaceuticals and Society: Critical Discourses & Debates (Williams, Gabe, Davis, Eds.), 14th Sociology of Health and Illness Monograph, Blackwell London.