Abstract
In my letter I refer to publications around syndemics, and link them up to other health concepts, calling for a stronger link between medical, social and environmental sciences to advance the global management of pandemic threats. Calling for close collaboration of ecological and conservation sciences with medical sciences is very timely. This letter will raise awareness that concepts like EcoHealth, OneHealth and medical terms such as Syndemics are largely overlapping and that only a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach will move our understanding forward on the inextricable link of human health and environmental health.
Highlights
In 2017, Singer et al (Singer et al 2017) and Mendenhall (Mendenhall 2017) laid out that syndemics are a new path to global health research
Syndemics is already well captured in the more medical-orientated OneHealth concept (Gibbs 2014), as well as in the more ecologically-orientated EcoHealth concept (Rapport 2007). All of these concepts and terms have in common to state that human health is inextricably linked to the environmental health and health-determining factors in the highly complex socio-ecological system
We know that intensifying pathogen emergence can be attributed to climate change, biodiversity loss, habitat degradation and an increasing rate of wildlife-human contacts, but that all of these are caused by synergies between persisting intense poverty and a growing human population (Schmeller et al 2020)
Summary
In 2017, Singer et al (Singer et al 2017) and Mendenhall (Mendenhall 2017) laid out that syndemics are a new path to global health research. Many medical researchers have since picked up on the topic, leading to the suggestion that the ongoing Covid-19 crisis is a syndemic and not a pandemic (Horton 2020).
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