Truth and Harm: Dangerous Knowledge and Popular Epidemiologies of HIV

If AIDS was an “unknowable known” and a public secret how was evidence of the epidemic produced and what were the implications thereof? In this chapter I explore the perlocutionary power of the spoken word in shaping local experiences of illness and death. I argue that talk of AIDS did not simply communicate information, but materialised infection and illness thereby causing bodily and emotional harm. I illustrate this by exploring medical HIV testing and contrasting this with everyday gossip about HIV infection and death.