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Over the last 20 years, the biocultural and political economic concept of syndemicswhich draws attention to the role of adverse and unjust social conditions in the deleterious clustering and interaction of diseases-has emerged from several initial publications in medical anthropology into an increasingly widely used multidisciplinary disease model

One consequence of the global HIV/AIDS pandemic has been the emergence of a broad awareness of the potential role of syringes in the transmission of infectious diseases. In addition to HIV/AIDS, the use of unsterile syringes by multiple persons has been linked to the spread of Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, Leishmaniasis, malaria and various other infections. The purpose of this paper is to extend awareness of the grave risks of multiperson syringe use by examining the role of this behavior in the development of infectious disease syndemics. The term syndemics refers to the clustering, often due to noxious social conditions, of two or more diseases in a population resulting in adverse disease synergies that impact human life and well-being. The contemporary appearance and spread of identified syringe-mediated syndemics, and the potential for the emergence of future syringe-mediated syndemics, both of which are reviewed in this paper, underline the importance of public health measures designed to limit syringe-related disease transmission.

Diarrhoea remains the second leading cause of death in children under 5 years. Moreover, morbidity as a result of diarrhoea is high particularly in marginalized communities. Frequent bouts of diarrhoea have deleterious and irreversible effects on physical and cognitive development. Children are especially vulnerable given their inability to mount an active immune response to pathogen exposure. Biological limitations are exacerbated by the long term effects of poverty, including reduced nutrition, poor hygiene, and deprived home environments. Drawing from available literature, this paper uses syndemic theory to explore the role of adverse biosocial interactions in increasing the total disease burden of enteric infections in low-resources populations and assess the limitations of recent global calls to action. The syndemic perspective describes situations in which adverse social conditions, including inequality, poverty, and other forms of political and economic oppression, play a critical role in facilitating disease-disease interactions. Given the complex micro and macro nature of childhood diarrhoea including interactions between pathogens, disease conditions and social environments, the syndemic perspective offers a way forward. While rarely the focus of health interventions, technologically advanced biomedical strategies are likely to be more effective if coupled with interventions that address the social conditions of disparity.

Tropical disease syndemics, the adverse morbidity‐enhancing interaction of two or more neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), like the diseases that comprise them, have been largely unrecognized and generally neglected. However, their role in contributing to the health burden of the poor is significant. This paper presents syndemics as a new theoretical perspective with which to develop a comprehensive approach to understand and respond to the health consequences of adverse interactions among NTDS and between NTDs and other diseases. Specifically the paper examines local social factors and macro‐level political economic factors that are both the ultimate source and ultimate arbiter of public and medical responses to syndemics of NTDs.