Accessibility navigation


The climate change–infectious disease nexus: is it time for climate change syndemics?

Heffernan, C. (2013) The climate change–infectious disease nexus: is it time for climate change syndemics? Animal Health Research Reviews, 14 (2). pp. 151-154. ISSN 1475-2654

Full text not archived in this repository.

It is advisable to refer to the publisher's version if you intend to cite from this work. See Guidance on citing.

To link to this item DOI: 10.1017/S1466252313000133

Abstract/Summary

Conceptualizing climate as a distinct variable limits our understanding of the synergies and interactions between climate change and the range of abiotic and biotic factors, which influence animal health. Frameworks such as eco-epidemiology and the epi-systems approach, while more holistic, view climate and climate change as one of many discreet drivers of disease. Here, I argue for a new paradigmatic framework: climate-change syndemics. Climate-change syndemics begins from the assumption that climate change is one of many potential influences on infectious disease processes, but crucially is unlikely to act independently or in isolation; and as such, it is the inter-relationship between factors that take primacy in explorations of infectious disease and climate change. Equally importantly, as climate change will impact a wide range of diseases, the frame of analysis is at the collective rather than individual level (for both human and animal infectious disease) across populations.

Item Type:Article
Refereed:Yes
Divisions:Life Sciences > School of Agriculture, Policy and Development > Department of International Development
ID Code:38477
Publisher:Cambridge University Press

University Staff: Request a correction | Centaur Editors: Update this record

Page navigation