Human preparedness: Relational infrastructures and medical countermeasures in Sierra Leone.
Glob Public Health
; 17(12): 4129-4145, 2022 12.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-36168658
ABSTRACT
This paper examines health worker experiences in two areas of post-epidemic preparedness in Sierra Leone - vaccine trials and laboratory strengthening - to reflect on the place of people in current models of epidemic response. Drawing on ethnographic research and interviews with health workers in the aftermath of Ebola, it explores the hopes and expectations that interventions foster for frontline workers in under-resourced health systems, and describes the unseen work involved in sustaining robust response infrastructures. Our analysis focuses on what it means for the people who sustain health systems in an emergency to be 'prepared' for an epidemic. Human preparedness entails more than the presence of a labour force; it involves building and maintaining 'relational infrastructures', often fragile social and moral relationships between health workers, publics, governments, and international organisations. The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the value of rethinking human resources from an anthropological perspective, and investing in the safety and support of people at the forefront of response. In describing the labour, personal losses, and social risks undertaken by frontline workers for protocols and practicality to meet in an emergency context, we describe the social process of preparedness; that is, the contextual engineering and investment that make response systems work.
Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Banco de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Fiebre Hemorrágica Ebola
/
Contramedidas Médicas
/
COVID-19
Tipo de estudio:
Guideline
/
Qualitative_research
Límite:
Humans
País/Región como asunto:
Africa
Idioma:
En
Año:
2022
Tipo del documento:
Article