Global Health and Tropical Medicine, Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal; Corresponding author.
Mohsin Sidat
Community Health Department, Faculty of Medicine, University Eduardo Mondlane, Mozambique
João Paulo Magalhães
Public Health Unit, Group of Primary Care Centers of Porto Oriental, North Health Regional Administration, Ministry of Health, Portugal
Fernando Passos Cupertino de Barros
Faculty of Medicine, Federal University of Goiás, Brazil
António Pedro Delgado
University of Cabo Verde, Cabo Verde, Global Health and Tropical Medicine, Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal
Tiago Correia
Global Health and Tropical Medicine, Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal
Cláudio Tadeu Daniel-Ribeiro
Laboratório de Pesquisa em Malária, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro and Centro de Pesquisa Diagnóstico e Treinamento em Malária, Fiocruz e Secretaria de Vigilância em Saúde, Brazil
Paulo Ferrinho
Global Health and Tropical Medicine, Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal
The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has affected communities, populations, and countries throughout the world. As the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic developed, the extent to which the disease interacted with already existing endemic, non-communicable and infectious diseases became evident, hence deeply influencing health outcomes. Additionally, a synergistic effect has been demonstrated also with socio-economic, cultural, and contextual determinants of health which seem to contribute to poorer health and accumulating social disadvantages.In this essay, using as a starting point the syndemic theory that translates the cumulative and intertwined factors between different epidemics, we argue that the SARS-CoV-2 is a one health issue of a syndemic nature and that the failure to acknowledge this contributes to weakened policy-making processes and public health responses and ineffective health policies and programs.
