With thought-provoking and interdisciplinary analysis, this volume helps uncover key assumptions and power dynamics that have undergirded responses to epidemics. Anthropologists, medical doctors and other researchers at the University of Sussex examine prevailing narratives that have surrounded recent epidemics. The authors show that such narratives can have profound ramifications upon health initiatives as well as social justice. Eight chapters on epidemics, ranging from TB and HIV to obesity, are framed by the editors’ introduction and conclusions. Sarah Dry also provides an overview of the global institutions involved in controlling epidemics (Chapter 2); she notes that in dominant narratives, epidemics are portrayed as novel, global and fast moving rather than shaped by longer-term trends (such as changes in mobility or local land use).

Case studies confirm health experts’ pattern of privileging short-term, emergency efforts to eradicate disease while neglecting the root causes or local understanding. Leach and Hewlett’s analysis (Chapter 3) discusses the narratives about Ebola and Lassa fevers, as well as offering anthropological insights into epidemic disease. Of particular interest to urban researchers is Egypt’s recent response to H1N1 “swine flu” in Cairo (Chapter 10). Mariz Tadros argues that slaughtering pigs was motivated by religious rather than health concerns, serving to undermine Christian waste collectors’ livelihoods and, ironically, generating health risks from uncollected rubbish. In a more positive case study, Gerald Bloom discusses the effective multilateral response to SARS in China (Chapter 4). Further contrasts are revealed in a chapter on obesity in Europe, North America and East Asia (Chapter 9). Ian Scoones’ discussion of epidemic surveillance and inadequate understanding of uncertainty centres upon influenza modelling, but his critique may be extended to other epidemics (Chapter 7).

HIV/AIDS narratives are analyzed by researcher and advocate Jerker Edstrom (Chapter 5) and in Hayley MacGregor’s case study of counsellors in Cape Town (Chapter 6). Discussing HIV and drug-resistant TB, Paul Nightingale demonstrates how misleading narratives have hindered a response to these co-emerging epidemics (Chapter 8). Contributors urge greater appreciation for the multiplicity of narratives, including the neglected perspectives of affected populations. The volume argues for more equitable, multi-faceted strategies so that epidemics no longer disproportionately affect marginalized groups.