Making sense of HIV-related viral load

One expert or two

Bibliographic Data

ID15099352
AuthorsAlison Moore (0000-0003-2989-4346), Christopher N Candlin, Guenter A Plum (University of Hong Kong)
Year2001
Volume3
Issue4
Pages429-450
Publication date2001-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCulture Health & Sexuality (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1369-1058 • E-ISSN: 1464-5351
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/136910501753184150
OpenAlexW2007925119
LanguageEN
Citations received14
References cited36

This paper examines how patients with HIV and their doctors jointly interpret 'viral load'. We show that the term 'viral load' is multiply coded: It calls up the idea of a biological property of the HIV positive body, but the term is also used as an indicator of drug treatment effectiveness, of patient compliance, and of overall wellness. Such multiple codings can be problematic because they index multiple and potentially conflicting discourses. Three distinct discourses which inform HIV medicine are identified: health measurement, health care, and health experience. These are described in terms of their semantic, lexicogrammatical and interactional patterns to illustrate how doctors and patients navigate their paths through them. In practice, what a viral load result is taken to mean depends on the alignment of patient and doctor in terms of their respective interdiscursive positions. The ability to recognize and flag discursive shifts should be considered a central component of doctors' professional expertise, particularly as a means of supporting patients in contributing their own expertise to clinical decision making

Family medicine · Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV · Term (time · Viral load · Computer Science · Interpreting and Communication in Healthcare · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Linguistics and Discourse Analysis · Medicine · Psychology

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