Africa is particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus and the effects of these restrictions given the weak healthcare infrastructure, the huge burden of diseases especially malaria, HIV and tuberculosis, high levels of malnutrition and food scarcity, high percentage of the urban population in informal settlements, high levels of poverty and unemployment with many living hand to mouth and a lack of facilities like running water for sanitation and good hygiene.
Through ongoing ethnographic fieldwork in the Antimicrobials in Society (AMIS) Project, the authors of these notes have come to learn about the everyday realities of the people engaged with as characterized by precarious employment, uncertain economic opportunities, a lack of safety nets, scarcity of quality healthcare, climate instability and being unable to afford the basic needs of life, let alone a full course of antibiotics. The AMIS project is a social science research project aimed at understanding the roles of antimicrobials in society and everyday life.
