The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: A syndemic perspective

Fronteira, Inês; Sidat, Mohsin; Magalhães, João Paulo; de Barros, Fernando Passos Cupertino; Delgado, António Pedro; Correia, Tiago; Daniel-Ribeiro, Cláudio Tadeu; Ferrinho, Paulo

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.