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- Title
Is Pollution the Primary Driver of Infectious Syndemics?
- Authors
Singer, Merrill
- Abstract
Syndemics, the adverse interaction of two or more coterminous diseases or other negative health conditions, have probably existed since human settlement, plant and animal domestication, urbanization, and the growth of social inequality beginning about 10–12,000 years ago. These dramatic changes in human social evolution significantly increased opportunities for the spread of zoonotic infectious diseases in denser human communities with increased sanitation challenges. In light of a growing body of research that indicates that anthropogenic air pollution causes numerous threats to health and is taking a far greater toll on human life and wellbeing than had been reported, this paper proposes the possibility that air pollution is now the primary driver of infectious disease syndemics. In support of this assertion, this paper reviews the growth and health impacts of air pollution, the relationship of air pollution to the development and spread of infectious diseases, and reported cases of air pollution-driven infectious disease syndemics, and presents public health recommendations for leveraging the biosocial insight of syndemic theory in responding to infectious disease.
- Subjects
SYNDEMICS; ZOONOSES; AIR pollution; COMMUNICABLE diseases; HUMAN settlements; POLLUTION; HUMAN-animal relationships
- Publication
Pathogens, 2024, Vol 13, Issue 5, p370
- ISSN
2076-0817
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.3390/pathogens13050370