Dengue fever is the world’s most prevalent mosquito-borne illness, but Alex Nading argues that people in dengue-endemic communities do not always view humans and mosquitoes as mortal enemies. Drawing on two years of ethnographic research in urban Nicaragua and challenging current global health approaches to animal-borne illness, Mosquito Trails tells the story of a group of community health workers who struggle to come to terms with dengue epidemics amid poverty, political change, and economic upheaval. Blending theory from medical anthropology, political ecology, and science and technology studies, Nading develops the concept of “the politics of entanglement” to describe how Nicaraguans strive to remain alive to the world around them despite global health strategies that seek to insulate them from their environments. This innovative ethnography illustrates the continued significance of local environmental histories, politics, and household dynamics to the making and unmaking of a global pandemic.
Mosquito Trails Ecology, Health, and the Politics of Entanglement
About the Book
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Guide to Acronyms
Introduction: Dengue in the Landscape
Part One: Infrastructure
Chapter 1: City of Emergencies
Chapter 2: Patrons, Clients, and Parasites
Part Two: Bodies
Chapter 3: Householding and Evangelical Ecology
Chapter 4: Mosquitos, Madres, y Moradores
Part Three: Knowledge
Chapter 5: Stories of Surveillance and Participation
Chapter 6: Dengue Season in the City of Emergencies
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index