Rather than ‘superbugs’ signifying recalcitrant forms of life that withstand biomedical treatment, drug resistant infections emerge within and are intricate with the exercise of social and medical power. The distinction is important, as it provides a means to understand and critique current methods employed to confront the threat of widespread antimicrobial resistance. A global health regime that seeks to extend social and medical power, through technical and market integration, risks reproducing a form of triumphalism and exceptionalism that resistance itself should have us pause to question. An alternative approach, based on a postcolonial as well as a ‘post-colony’ approach to health and microbes, provides impetus to challenge the assumptions and norms of global health. It highlights the potential contribution that vernacular approaches to human and animal health can play in altering the milieu of resistance.

耐药菌感染不是出现在能经受生物医学治疗的顽强生命形式的“超级细菌”中，而是在社会和医疗力量的行使中出现并错综复杂。这种区别很重要，因为它提供了一种方法，可以理解和批评当前用于应对广泛耐药性的威胁的方法。试图通过技术和市场整合来扩大社会和医疗实力的全球卫生体制有可能重现胜利的形式和例外主义，抵抗本身应该使我们停顿。基于后殖民以及“后殖民”卫生和微生物方法的另一种方法为挑战全球卫生的假设和规范提供了动力。