Anthropology and clinical trial emerging reproductive issues in Cambodia

At the Institute Pasteur du Cambodge, existing links among researchers involved in programs funded by the National Agency for Research on AIDS and Hepatitis led principal investigators of clinical trial and social scientists to work together. This paper presents how we framed this research that aims to document, from an anthropological point of view, various issues related to procreation and contraception for people living with HIV within the clinical trial "Camelia" (ANRS 1295-CIPRA KH001). Indeed, in the CAMELIA clinical trial a total of 661 patients (236 women) were enrolled. Despite the strong requirement stated in the informed consent form, 19 women enrolled in the trial became pregnant. The anthropological research was helpful to bring insights into how the clinical trial deal with various social forms related to reproductive practices produced globally, reinterpreted locally and negotiated by patients. It provides body rich stories of lived bodies and various insights on how HIV/Aids mostly combines to poverty challenge both the reproductive norms and "choices" and the "emic" notion of " couple" and " family ". For example, we describe why CAMELIA patients do not always disclose their HIV status to their partner and the social construction and social implications of such decision. We explored the reasons and strategies they mobilized to maintain a couple relationship. We analyzed how CAMELIA team deals within those complexities and pointed out the individual and structural intertwined logics behind discourses and facts. Thus we illustrate also how reproductive bodies are enacting and being enacted when medical things travel in poor Cambodian settings and where medicine and biological risks figure only as a reduced part of daily life.

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Source ISSN: 2010-3646
Author Hancart Petitet, Pascale
Maintainer CCSD
Last Updated May 5, 2026, 13:31 (UTC)
Created May 5, 2026, 13:31 (UTC)
Identifier ird-00982378
Language en
Rights https://about.hal.science/hal-authorisation-v1/
contributor Recherches Translationnelles sur le VIH et les maladies infectieuses endémiques et émergentes (TransVIHMI) ; Université Montpellier 1 (UM1)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université de Yaoundé I (UY1)-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar [Sénégal] (UCAD)
creator Hancart Petitet, Pascale
date 2012-05-05T00:00:00
harvest_object_id 49e8627a-c547-42e1-b480-4222258f1762
harvest_source_id 3374d638-d20b-4672-ba96-a23232d55657
harvest_source_title test moissonnage SELUNE
metadata_modified 2025-03-28T00:00:00
set_spec type:ART