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Although the body is fundamental to observation and feeling, its experience of infection is regarded by the biomedical sciences and, for the most part, the social sciences as relatively obtuse. The body is situated as a mere object of inquiry, as if its intricate and highly complex dynamics indicate that it is no more than an imperfect animated machine and, concomitantly, infection simply a change to its normative mechanisms. In this Position Piece, I ask: what might be afforded to the problematic diagnosis of communicable infection and to global health strategies of containment if the body were appreciated as an active participant in diagnoses? To do so, I take up the ‘pluralist panpsychist’ proposition that bodies think. Counter to the view that thinking is the preserve of the human mind and that value is an ‘after’ ascribed to a given fact or situation, I experiment with the idea that the body’s sensory awareness can be thought as a creative source of immanent values. Drawing on a series of empirical examples primarily focused on the perceived novelty of COVID-19, I offer a preliminary sketch of how revaluing the body as involved in decision-making and novelty might enrich the scope of biomedical and social diagnoses.

Cancer is commonly described as the uncontrolled reproduction of abnormal cells in the body. This definition enacts the disease as a local process, whose temporality is linear. In this article we challenge this approach, from a case study on breast cancer, analysed from the actor-network theory. Starting from the conception of disease as a material-semiotic trajectory, we establish the role of regulation and the processes of pre-symptomatic diagnosis in the materiality of cancer. Echoing the proposal of Alfred North Whitehead, we define cancer as a potential object. Then, we describe how propositions are articulated in biomedical patients, affect their anatomy and establish an authentic embodiment, which acts as a socio-material assemblage. We conclude that it is necessary to think about interventions that consider the heterogeneity of the material aspects that come with cancer, conceived from this perspective.El cáncer es comúnmente descrito como la reproducción incontrolada de células anormales en el cuerpo. Esta definición constituye la enfermedad como un proceso local, cuya temporalidad es lineal. En este trabajo ponemos en cuestionamiento tal enfoque a partir de un estudio de caso sobre el cáncer de mama, analizado desde la teoría del actor-red. Iniciando desde la concepción de la enfermedad como una trayectoria semiótico-material, establecemos el papel que juegan la regulación y los procesos de diagnóstico pre-sintomático en la materialidad del cáncer. Haciendo eco de la propuesta de Alfred North Whitehead, definimos el cáncer como un objeto potencial. Luego, describimos cómo las proposiciones biomédicas se articulan en las pacientes, afectan su anatomía y establecen una auténtica corporización que se comporta como un agenciamiento socio-material. Concluimos que se hace necesario pensar en intervenciones que consideren la heterogeneidad de aspectos materiales que conlleva el cáncer concebido desde esta perspectiva.

Assess the acceptability of HIV treatment as prevention and early antiretroviral treatment among gay and bisexual men in Australia and any changes in attitudes over time.National, online, cross-sectional surveys of gay and bisexual men were repeated in 2011 and 2013. Changes in attitudes to HIV treatment over time were assessed with multivariate analysis of variance. The characteristics of men who agreed that HIV treatment prevented transmission and thought that early treatment was necessary were identified with multivariate logistic regression.In total, 2599 HIV-negative, untested and HIV-positive men participated (n = 1283 in 2011 and n = 1316 in 2013). Attitudes changed little between 2011 and 2013; most participants remained sceptical about the preventative benefits of HIV treatment. In 2013, only 2.6% of men agreed that HIV treatment prevented transmission; agreement was associated with being HIV-positive, having an HIV-positive regular partner, and having received HIV post-exposure prophylaxis. In contrast, 71.8% agreed that early antiretroviral treatment is necessary; younger men were more likely and HIV-positive men and participants with HIV-positive partners were much less likely to agree with this.Promoting the individual health benefits of HIV treatment rather than its preventative benefits remains more acceptable to Australian gay and bisexual men.

El cáncer es comúnmente descrito como la reproducción incontrolada de células anormales en el cuerpo. Esta definición constituye la enfermedad como un proceso local, cuya temporalidad es lineal. En este trabajo ponemos en cuestionamiento tal enfoque a partir de un estudio de caso sobre el cáncer de mama, analizado desde la teoría del actor-red. Iniciando desde la concepción de la enfermedad como una trayectoria semiótico-material, establecemos el papel que juegan la regulación y los procesos de diagnóstico pre-sintomático en la materialidad del cáncer. Haciendo eco de la propuesta de Alfred North Whitehead, definimos el cáncer como un objeto potencial. Luego, describimos cómo las proposiciones biomédicas se articulan en las pacientes, afectan su anatomía y establecen una auténtica corporización que se comporta como un agenciamiento socio-material. Concluimos que se hace necesario pensar en intervenciones que consideren la heterogeneidad de aspectos materiales que conlleva el cáncer concebido desde esta perspectiva.

In this article I consider the field of HIV treatment and prevention in light of poststructural feminist critiques of the self-evidence of matter. Both HIV and poststructural feminist theory are viewed in relation to the current state of HIV scientific research of which it has been said: 'much remains left to the imagination' (McCune, 2001, emphasis added). Importantly, it is in the absence of 'real' knowledge of bodily matter and virus, that imagination is presumed by science as a fall back. Paradoxically, recent debate within feminist theory provides an almost perverse counter to this way of characterizing the struggle against HIV. Rather than considering imagination as something outside or external to the 'real', there is now substantial argument suggesting that imagination is always already present and inherent to the 'real'. In the course of this paper, these differing positions of science and feminist theory are used to challenge and extend each other. The empirical matter of HIV medical science is shown as evidence of matter beyond the normative insistence of (human) language. On this basis, a theory of performativity - devised by Judith Butler and extended by Karen Barad - is argued as grounds for a methodologically expanded science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]