Introduction to Syndemics A Critical Systems Approach to Public and Community Health

by Singer, Merrill

• ISBN13: 9780470472033
• ISBN10: 0470472030
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-07-07
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass

Summary

This book explains the growing field of syndemic theory and research, a framework for the analysis and prevention of disease interactions that addresses underlying social and environmental causes. This perspective complements single-issue prevention strategies, which can be effective for discrete problems, but often are mismatched to the goal of protecting the public's health in its widest sense."Merrill Singer has astutely described why health problems should not be seen in isolation, but rather in the context of other diseases and the social and economic inequities that fuel them. An important read for public health and social scientists." -Michael H. Merson, director, Duke Global Health Institute"Not only does this book provide a persuasive theoretical biosocial model of syndemics, but it also illustrates the model with a wide variety of fascinating historical and contemporary examples." -Peter J. Brown, professor of Anthropology and Global Health and director, Center for Health, Culture, and Society, Emory University"The concept of syndemics is Singer's most important contribution to critical medical anthropology as it interfaces with an ecosocial approach to epidemiology." -Mark Nichter, Regents Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona"Merrill Singer offers the public the most comprehensive work ever written on this key area of research and policy making." -Francisco I. Bastos, chairman of the graduate studies on epidemiology, Fundacao Oswaldo Cruz"Exquisitely describes how this new approach is a critical tool that brings together veterinary, medical, and social sciences to solve emerging infectious and non-infectious diseases of today's world." -Bonnie Buntain, MS, DVM, diplomate, American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine"For too long the great integrative perspectives on modern biomedicine and public health disease ecology and social medicine-have remained more or less separate. In this innovative and provocative book, Merrill Singer develops a valuable synthesis that will reshape the way we think about health and disease." -Warwick H. Anderson, MD, PhD, professorial research fellow, Department of History and Centre for Values, Ethics, and the Law in Medicine, University of Sidney

Author Biography

-Warwick H. Anderson, MD, PhD, professorial research fellow, Department of History and Centre for Values, Ethics, and the Law in Medicine, University of Sydney

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xiii
The Author	p. xix
Acknowledgments	p. xxi
Introducing Key Concepts in Syndemics	p. 1
Learning from Lichen: Reconceptualizing Health and Disease	p. 3
On Not Planting Cut Flowers: The Weight of History	p. 4
Germ Theory and the Biomedical Conception of Disease	p. 4
Revolutions in Biomedical Realities	p. 10
Problems with Postulates	p. 11
Confronting Comorbidity	p. 16
Toward Syndemic Reconceptualization	p. 18
Local Knowledge	p. 19
Connections: Human and Nonhuman	p. 20
Summary	p. 23
Key Terms	p. 23
Questions for Discussion	p. 23
Syndemic Cases	p. 25
Trucking Between the Bailiwicks: Multidisciplinarity, Sava, and Synergies in Health	p. 27
Why Multidisciplinarity	p. 27
The Term Syndemic	p. 28
The SAVA Syndemic	p. 31
SAVA Among Victims of Domestic Violence	p. 31
SAVA Among MSM	p. 41
SAVA Among Street Drug Users	p. 44
SAVA Among Commercial Sex Workers	p. 48
SAVA and Public Health	p. 51
Summary	p. 52
Key Terms	p. 52
Questions for Discussion	p. 52
Exemplars: Syndemic Case Studies	p. 53
Syllables in the Biological Message	p. 53
Varieties of Microlevel Disease Interaction	p. 54
Syndemic Diversity	p. 57
Renocardiac Syndemic	p. 57
SARS-Chronic Disease Syndemic	p. 60
Asthma-Influenza Syndemic	p. 65
Diabulimia Syndemic	p. 69
Summary	p. 73
Key Terms	p. 73
Questions for Discussion	p. 74
HIV/AIDS and Other Infections: Immune Imparity and Syndemogenesis	p. 75
Assessing the HIV/AIDS Syndemics	p. 76
Opportunistic Infections and HIV/AIDS	p. 77
Sexually Transmitted Disease Syndemics	p. 77
Hepatitis and HIV/AIDS Syndemic	p. 81
Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS Syndemic	p. 82
Malaria and HIV/AIDS Syndemic	p. 87
VL and HIV/AIDS Syndemic	p. 91
Helminths and HIV/AIDS Syndemic	p. 93
Summary	p. 98
Key Terms	p. 98
Questions for Discussion	p. 99
Beyond Contagion: HIV/AIDS and Noninfectious Disease Syndemogenesis	p. 101
An Aging Epidemic	p. 101
Infectious and Chronic Disease Connections	p. 102
Kidney Disease and HIV	p. 107
Food Insufficiency and HIV	p. 108
Cardiovascular Diseases and HIV/AIDS	p. 113
Emotional and Cognitive Health and HIV/AIDS	p. 115
Countersyndemics	p. 118
Summary	p. 119
Key Terms	p. 119
Questions for Discussion	p. 120
Society, History, and The Environment	p. 121
Inequity as a Cofactor: The Syndemic Impact of Social Disparities	p. 123
Disease in the Time of Disparity	p. 123
The Making Social of Disease	p. 134
Biologizing Experience	p. 138
Supersyndemics	p. 153
Health and Human Rights	p. 154
Summary	p. 155
Key Terms	p. 155
Questions for Discussion	p. 155
Syndemics and the Worlds They Made	p. 157
Before Now	p. 157
Irish Famine Syndemic of 1741	p. 161
Gibraltar Cholera Syndemic of 1865	p. 162
Massachusetts Scarlet Fever Syndemic of the 1800s	p. 164
Global Influenza Syndemic of 1918	p. 166
Syndemics Among Native Americans on the American Frontier	p. 169
Syndemics of the Mormon Migration	p. 171
Syndemics of War	p. 173
Summary	p. 176
Key Terms	p. 176
Questions for Discussion	p. 176
A World Out of Balance: Emergent and Reemergent Ecosyndemics	p. 177
Emergent Syndemics of a Troubled World	p. 177
From Emergent Infection to Emergent Syndemic	p. 181
Reemergent Diseases and Emergent Syndemics	p. 184
Superinfection: Intragenus Syndemics	p. 184
Iatrogenic Syndemics	p. 186
Unintended Countersyndemics	p. 189
Ecosyndemics and the Anthropocene	p. 189
Summary	p. 195
Key Terms	p. 195
Questions for Discussion	p. 195
Applications of the Syndemic Perspective	p. 197
Practical Utility: Mobilizing the Syndemic Model in the Promotion of Health and Treatment of Disease	p. 199
Why Study Syndemics?	p. 199
Public Health and Syndemic Prevention	p. 200
Medical Treatment of Syndemics	p. 206
Modeling Syndemics	p. 217
Future Syndemics	p. 220
Summary	p. 220
Key Terms	p. 220
Questions for Discussion	p. 221
Glossary	p. 223
References	p. 229
Index	p. 263
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.