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01-10-2022 | Public Health | IM - REVIEW

Environmental health, COVID-19, and the syndemic: internal medicine facing the challenge

Authors: Agostino Di Ciaula, Hanns Moshammer, Paolo Lauriola, Piero Portincasa

Published in: Internal and Emergency Medicine | Issue 8/2022

Abstract

Internists are experts in complexity, and the COVID-19 pandemic is disclosing complex and unexpected interactions between communicable and non-communicable diseases, environmental factors, and socio-economic disparities. The medicine of complexity cannot be limited to facing comorbidities and to the clinical management of multifaceted diseases. Evidence indicates how climate change, pollution, demographic unbalance, and inequalities can affect the spreading and outcomes of COVID-19 in vulnerable communities. These elements cannot be neglected, and a wide view of public health aspects by a “one-health” approach is strongly and urgently recommended. According to World Health Organization, 35% of infectious diseases involving the lower respiratory tract depend on environmental factors, and infections from SARS-Cov-2 is not an exception. Furthermore, environmental pollution generates a large burden of non-communicable diseases and disabilities, increasing the individual vulnerability to COVID-19 and the chance for the resilience of large communities worldwide. In this field, the awareness of internists must increase, as privileged healthcare providers. They need to gain a comprehensive knowledge of elements characterizing COVID-19 as part of a syndemic. This is the case when pandemic events hit vulnerable populations suffering from the increasing burden of chronic diseases, disabilities, and social and economic inequalities. Mastering the interplay of such events requires a change in overall strategy, to adequately manage not only the SARS-CoV-2 infection but also the growing burden of non-communicable diseases by a “one health” approach. In this context, experts in internal medicine have the knowledge and skills to drive this change.

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Title: Environmental health, COVID-19, and the syndemic: internal medicine facing the challenge
Authors: Agostino Di Ciaula
Hanns Moshammer
Paolo Lauriola
Piero Portincasa
Publication date: 01-10-2022
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Keywords: Public Health
SARS-CoV-2
COVID-19
Environmental Medicine
Climate Change
Air Pollutants
Published in: Internal and Emergency Medicine / Issue 8/2022
Print ISSN: 1828-0447
Electronic ISSN: 1970-9366
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11739-022-03107-5

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