This article argues that when examining the spread of disease, fighting biosocial aspects are as important as fighting the biological aspects. The authors argue that structureal violence, which is introduced by inequality leads to premature death and disability. By "resocializing" we can prevent diseases such as TB and AIDS from staying diseases of the poor.
This article was published on PLOS.org and has been viewed over 96,000 times and has been cited over 175 times. An attempt to access the exact articles in which it had been cited was made, but that information was hidden behind a paywall.
When community factors such as transportation and insurance status were minimized as factors preventing HIV/AIDs care, the playing field was leveled within a few years. No longer were those issues much more often seen in the patients that did not survive, rather, they were seen more evenly in those that did and did not survive.
Combining clinic treatments with home-visits and prescription drug deliveries has been found to be most effective for treating all people, regardless of social factors, in places from rural Africa to Boston, MA.
Mutli-faceted approach in rural areas were most effective and able to dramatically reduce Mother-to-Infant-Transmission of HIV. This requires more resources and organization, but it takes care of the issue most efficiently in areas that are very poor and have very rudimentary infrastructure, even worse than in poor cities.
Paul Farmer is the chair of the Department of GLobal Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is an expert in health care services and advocacy for those who are sick and in poverty. He doesn't appear to be situated in emergency response; he seems to be much more on the follow-up months or years later. Dr. Farmer has myriad publications of relevance to the Network, and his research foci are mostly regarding establishing high-quality health care in resource-poor environments. (http://ghsm.hms.harvard.edu/person/faculty/paul-farmer)
Bruce Nizeye works as the Chief of Infrastructure for PIH in Rwanda. It appears that his expertise is in physical constructs. I could not find how he was situated in emergency response, but it appears that he takes a role on the back side of disasters, much like Dr. Farmer. (http://www.pih.org/blog/the-voices-of-our-colleagues/)
Sara Stulac is an Associate Physician in the Division of Global Health Equity at BWH. She is also the Deputy Chief Medical Director for PIH. She seems to be an expert in pediatrics, specifically HIV care and prevention and oncology. Like her other authors mentioned on this page, she does not seem to be directly involved with emergency response. Her research foci are mostly not related to emergency response, but dealing with non-emergent pediatric care. (http://www.brighamandwomens.org/Departments_and_Services/medicine/servi…)
Salmaan Keshavjee is a professor at HMS and a physician at BWH. He has conducted research on post-Soviet Tajikistan's health transition and worked on an MDR-TB treatment program in Tomsk, Russia. Rather than emergency response, Dr. Keshavjee seems to be focused on epidemiology like his co-authors. He has a number of research foci including MDR-TB treatment and policy, health-sector reform in transnational societies, the role of NGOs in the formation of trans-border civil society, and "modernity, social institutions, civil society, and health in the Middle East and Central Asia. (http://ghsm.hms.harvard.edu/person/faculty/salmaan-keshavjee)
Emergency response isn't addressed in the report at all. The only area that could be claimed to be touched on is access to emergency prophylaxis for HIV by those in poor areas.
Paul E Farmer, Bruce Nizeye, Sara Stulac, Salmaan Keshavjee are listed as the authors of this paper. They work with the health workers in suffering countries, like Haiti. Farmer is a co-founder of Partners in Health, as well as a physician and anthropologist. Stulac is an MD, MPH, specializing in pediatrics, and is also associated with PIH. Keshavjee is an MD, PhD, professor at Harvard of Global Health and Social Medicine. They are all professionals in the field of medicine, and through the PIH, they are well acquainted with responding to global health issues.
They researched a lot into tuberculosis/HIV and the social issues that were discussed. Articles on asthma were also reviewed and used, despite asthma not being directly discussed, as well as lead poisoning. This could indicate that more diseases are affected by social issues than discussed in the article, or maybe those diseases didn't show any correlation.
The authors pulled information from a variety of sources and tools. They pulled from information procured by their non-profit, Partners in Health as well as from other research articles. Some of them are also on the ground level, treating and interacting with patients who are symptoms of their structural violence argument. These patients are able to provide first-hand information to the authors.
This article is more based on the response to disease spread, rather than response to a single emergency event.
"The poor are the natural constituents of public health, and physicians, as Virchow argued, are the natural attorneys of the poor."
"Because of contact with patients, physicians readily appreciate that largescale social forces—racism, gender inequality, poverty, political violence and war, and sometimes the very policies that address them—often determine who falls ill and who has access to care."
"The term “structural violence” is one way of describing social arrangements that put individuals and populations in harm's way"