Abstract
This chapter provides an overview of the biodiversity–health relationships that are either ignored, misunderstood, or misguided by modern infectious disease medicine and biology. It addresses the challenge by discussing the pivotal, but unsuspected, role of parasites and microorganisms in ecosystem functioning, stability, and resilience. The chapter summarizes the most recent research findings and presents selected examples at the interfaces between ecosystems, biodiversity, and human infectious diseases. It discusses the absolute need for a refoundation of medicine with more depth, with teaching in medicine and biology that better considers the reality of infectious diseases as complex systems, necessitating integrative and transversal thinking and better collaboration between separated disciplines. Anthropogenic environmental change largely drives ecosystem disturbance, biodiversity loss, and changes in host species communities and, consequently, the emergence of new infectious diseases. The domestication of flora and fauna has significantly transformed the Earth's biosphere, altering the path of human evolution and allowing the rise of agrarian civilizations.
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