Bent Steenberg

Dr Steenberg is a medical anthropologist specialised in social aspects of health in southern Africa. He explores stumbling blocks to public healthcare such as HIV stigma, disclosure, vaccine hesitancy, drug adherence, care-seeking, and structural violence across health systems. Bent has undertaken extensive work in Mozambican and later South African clinics and hospitals. After five years as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, he joined a social and behavioural vaccinology team at Africa’s largest hospital — Chris Hani Baragwanath in Soweto. Meanwhile, he was jointly appointed to Wits’ School of Clinical Medicine writing about acceptancy and hesitancy in the national COVID-19 vaccination programme. As a pastime, Bent tinkers with a documentary film on HIV care in South Africa.