title: Re-visioning local biologies: HIV-2 and the pattern of differential valuation in biomedical research.
abstract: The discovery of HIV-2, a distinctly West African variant of HIV, is often portrayed as the result of a straightforward, if serendipitous, error. This article reframes the history of how HIV-2 came to be a knowable scientific identity. Relying on narratives from an African laboratory and clinic, it suggests that the rise and fall of HIV-2 as a viable research entity is indicative of a differential visibility and valuation of both human bodies and viruses. Understanding how HIV-2 emerged as a local biology reveals the complex set of relations that contemporary African scientists face in navigating local moral economies and the mercurial politics of the contemporary global health industry.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. hngilber@gmail.com
authors.forename: Hannah
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gilbert
mesh_terms: D060432:Anthropology, Medical; D035843:Biomedical Research; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000266:history* / Q000821:virology*; D015498:HIV-2 / Q000145:classification* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D033262:Narration; D012675:Senegal