Individualized environments, individual cures: An examination of Lyme disease activism in Virginia, 2020, Kaur et al

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For what it is worth:

Individualized environments, individual cures: An examination of Lyme disease activism in Virginia

Brent Z Kaup, Matthew Abel, Amanda Sikirica
First Published May 8, 2020 Research Article
https://doi.org/10.1177/2514848620923593
Article information

Abstract

Doctors, patients, and public health professionals widely recognize that certain physical environments are more conducive to the emergence and spread of Lyme disease.

However, ecological solutions to the spread of the disease are rarely pursued.

Drawing on interviews with Lyme activists, politicians, and state and local administrators dealing with Lyme disease related issues as well as an analysis of Lyme disease legislation in the state of Virginia, we examine why solutions to Lyme disease most often focus on expanding individual choices for diagnosis and treatment over changing the environments that enhance the risk of Lyme disease.

We argue that the emergence of Lyme disease in a neoliberal society pushed debates on how to best deal with the disease away from its underpinning environmental causes and into individual human bodies.

Lyme disease, contested illness, embodied health movements, neoliberal subjectivity