It's not a pandemic, it's a syndemic

EDUARDO ESTRADA

In a recent article, Richard Horton, editor of the medical journal The Lancet, advances the idea that, rather than a pandemic, we are facing a syndemic.

The term was coined by the medical anthropologist Merrill Singer in the 1990s to describe the interaction between biological and social elements in the spread of certain diseases.

In his study of AIDS transmission, Merrill observed “a set of closely interrelated endemic and epidemic conditions (tuberculosis, sexually transmitted diseases, hepatitis, cirrhosis, infant mortality, drug abuse ...

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