ABSTRACT
Between 2012 and 2015, the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana reported five times the national incidence of unexplained acute flaccid paralysis in children. Although this came to light through the polio surveillance system, which collates reports of paralysis in children, none of the children had actually tested positive for polio. To the author's mind, as a parttime epidemiologist, this suggested the presence of some other significant burden of disease in the area. As such, throughout 2015, Jephcott attempted to bring the data to the attention of various colleagues at the Ghana Health Service. Rather than acknowledging, or even directly refuting, the potential signal of a public health crisis within it; however, they denied the possibility of such a signal existing at all. This chapter draws on the author's ethnographic observations, notes, and interview transcripts from the time, to interrogate these unexpected responses. What emerges from these materials is a complex entanglement of human and system powers of perception. The respondents’ embodiment of the official surveillance system had seemingly led them to adopt the blind spots of the underlying epidemiological approach, specifically, those around historically overlooked, stable burdens of disease. This chapter highlights a number of significant concerns for public health and social justice as well as some exciting areas for further anthropological research.
