From pandemic to syndemic : the importance of context

The concept of "syndemics" is getting more and more popularity in scientific journals, especially since the end of the first decade of the current century. It relates to the dynamic interaction of synchronous or sequential diseases (whether communicable or not, also including mental diseases), with social and environmental factors, resulting at the end in a worse global outcome. The rise of publications in peer reviewed journals is exponential, especially in the last ten years. Born after another - forgotten - epidemy, the one related to HIV (AIDS), this concept is more than ever cited within the frame of the still ongoing COVID-19 pandemics. We will highlight this concept through a couple of selected examples related to infectious diseases. The recognition of an extensive intertwining allows to change in depth the way we approach health care efficiency, both at an individual as well as a societal level.;Le concept de «syndémie» - l'interaction entre maladies co-existantes ou séquentielles (transmissibles, non transmissibles, et maladies mentales), avec des phénomènes sociaux et environnementaux qui amplifient les effets négatifs de cette interaction - fait de plus en plus le sujet de publications dans des journaux internationaux, particulièrement ces dernières années. La croissance d'articles est effectivement exponentielle en particulier depuis la fin de la première décade du 21ème siècle. Né dans les suites d'une autre épidémie - celle du SIDA (taxée d'ailleurs de pandémie oubliée) - ce terme est devenu de plus en plus populaire. Il l'est encore plus aujourd'hui, depuis l'avènement de la crise sanitaire liée à une autre pandémie, celle de la COVID-19. Les liens et interactions multiples entre maladies et facteurs «externes» seront illustrés à l'aide de quelques exemples relatifs aux maladies infectieuses. Le fait même de reconnaître un tel entrelacement permet d'évoquer une approche différente afin d'améliorer l'efficience de la prise en charge de la santé d'une population et d'un individu.

[From pandemic to syndemic : the importance of context]

The concept of "syndemics" is getting more and more popularity in scientific journals, especially since the end of the first decade of the current century. It relates to the dynamic interaction of synchronous or sequential diseases (whether communicable or not, also including mental diseases), with social and environmental factors, resulting at the end in a worse global outcome. The rise of publications in peer reviewed journals is exponential, especially in the last ten years. Born after another - forgotten - epidemy, the one related to HIV (AIDS), this concept is more than ever cited within the frame of the still ongoing COVID-19 pandemics. We will highlight this concept through a couple of selected examples related to infectious diseases. The recognition of an extensive intertwining allows to change in depth the way we approach health care efficiency, both at an individual as well as a societal level.

Mental illnesses: the playground for new technologies

The current health care crisis, induced by the coronavirus pandemic, is at the origin of significant global changes within our societies and profoundly modifies the health care sector as well, especially in the field of mental health. Nowadays, this latter is particularly poorly equipped in financial and human resources. Without major and immediate changes, the mental health sector will not be able to cope with the expected exponential rise of care needs, exacerbated by the rapid deterioration of mental health in the general population and among health care providers. We intend to illustrate the potential role and benefit of new technologies, able to solve the imbalance. Without any possible doubt, the health care crisis has provided a formidable momentum for their arousal, but we still have to determine their accessibility, feasibility, efficacy and efficiency by running controlled clinical trials.

[Thinking differently about health care after COVID-19]

The health crisis linked to the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has forced society and hospitals in particular to adapt and reform. Teamwork between hospitals, even beyond the networks, helped them to deal with the crisis. The medical and nursing staff had to learn to work differently and differentiate urgent from non-urgent care. But the patient also had to change his/her behaviour. Access to hospitals has been divided between a separate COVID and non-COVID route in order to avoid contamination. Telemedicine has become a daily way of communicating between doctors and patients. Telephone consultations have been set up with reimbursement by social security. However, these actions and innovations should not end with the crisis but, on the contrary, be a lever to rethink the role of hospitals, and our health care system more generally.

[The COVID-19 pandemic : a real opportunity for digital health]

Nowadays, we are facing a global health crisis. The infectious agent, the virus SARS-CoV-2, has some clinical and pathological characteristics which have been described extensively throughout published medical literature. The pandemic outbreak arises in a very particular period. Never before, our political disorganization and lack of collaboration has been highlighted as it was during the present health care crisis. Our health care system is shaking because of the lack of sufficient human and financial resources. However, technological changes, and especially remote health (teleconsultations and remote monitoring) are disrupting the whole ecosystem. We intend to illustrate that the COVID outbreak offers a unique opportunity to accelerate acceptance of these rapid technological changes, which are anyway unavoidable. Teleconsultations and remote monitoring, which both appeared as a devil out of the box from nowhere, at least for some care providers in the health care landscape, are there to stay.