Ineffective responses to unlikely outbreaks

Hypothesis building in newly‐emerging infectious disease outbreaks

Bibliographic Data

ID7199585
AuthorsFreya L Jephcott (0000-0003-3256-0099, Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER), University of Cambridge Cambridge UK, corresponding author), James L N Wood (0000-0002-0258-3188, Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER), University of Cambridge Cambridge UK), Andrew A Cunningham (0000-0002-3543-6504, Institute of Zoology Zoological Society of London London UK), Joseph Bonney (0000-0002-1717-6243, Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research), J H Kofi Bonney (Virology Department Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, University of Ghana Accra Ghana), Stephen Nyarko‐ameyaw (Disease Control Unit, Techiman Municipal Health Directorate Ghana Health Service Techiman Ghana), Ursula Maier (Paediatrics Department Holy Family Hospital Techiman Ghana), P W Geissler (0000-0003-4724-5593, University of Oslo)
Year2023
Volume38
Issue1
Pages67-83
Publication date2023-11-10
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueMedical Anthropology Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0745-5194 • E-ISSN: 1548-1387
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/maq.12827
PMID37948592
OpenAlexW4388563159
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited31

Over the last 30 years, there has been significant investment in research and infrastructure aimed at mitigating the threat of newly emerging infectious diseases (NEID). Core epidemiological processes, such as outbreak investigations, however, have received little attention and have proceeded largely unchecked and unimproved. Using ethnographic material from an investigation into a cryptic encephalitis outbreak in the Brong‐Ahafo Region of Ghana in 2010–2013, in this paper we trace processes of hypothesis building and their relationship to the organizational structures of the response. We demonstrate how commonly recurring features of NEID investigations produce selective pressures in hypothesis building that favor iterations of pre‐existing “exciting” hypotheses and inhibit the pursuit of alternative hypotheses, regardless of relative likelihood. These findings contribute to the growing anthropological and science and technology studies (STS) literature on the epistemic communities that coalesce around suspected NEID outbreaks and highlight an urgent need for greater scrutiny of core epidemiological processes

Biology · Disease · Infectious disease (medical specialty · Outbreak · Pathology · Political science · Scrutiny · COVID-19 epidemiological studies · Medicine · Viral Infections and Outbreaks Research · Zoonotic diseases and public health · Epidemiology · Virology

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access