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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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'Post antibiotic apocalypse'
— discourses of mutation in narratives of MRSA | | Author(s) | Brian Brown, Paul Crawford |
| Journal title | Sociology of Health & Illness, vol 31, no 4, May 2009 |
| Pages | pp 508-524 |
| Source | http://www.blackwellpublishing.com |
| Keywords | Infectious diseases ; Attitude ; Newspapers [publications] ; Interpretation ; Qualitative Studies. |
| Annotation | The question of mutation as it is manifested in press coverage of MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) in UK hospitals is considered. This represents a fertile field of discourse which brings into focus issues relating to microbes, people and working practices as well as the concepts of risk and vulnerability. A regular feature of reporting has been the presence of explanations for drug resistance and versatility, largely through a Darwinian process which is "clever" at overcoming human attempts at elimination. More recently, a discourse has emerged which also brings to the forefront the vulnerability of patients who are very young, old or otherwise immunocompromised, or whose genetic make-up might put them at risk from the microbe. The hospital is de-centred as a source of infection, and attention is turned instead to nursing homes and gymnasia as sources of infection in the community. This latter development mitigates the responsibilities of hospitals and statutory healthcare providers and turns the risk back toward the individual as a responsible actor in an ecology of mutation. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-090701222 A |
| Classmark | CJA: DP: UE:6H: 4CC: 3DP |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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