Transdisciplinary and social-ecological health frameworks—Novel approaches to emerging parasitic and vector-borne diseases

Abstract

Ecosystem Health, Conservation Medicine, EcoHealth, One Health, Planetary Health and GeoHealth are inter-related disciplines that underpin a shared understanding of the functional prerequisites of health, sustainable vitality and wellbeing. All of these are based on recognition that health interconnects species across the planet, and they offer ways to more effectively tackle complex real-world challenges. Herein we present a bibliometric analysis to document usage of a subset of such terms by journals over time. We also provide examples of parasitic and vector-borne diseases, including malaria, toxoplasmosis, baylisascariasis, and Lyme disease. These and many other diseases have persisted, emerged or re-emerged, and caused great harm to human and animal populations in developed and low income, biodiverse nations around the world, largely because of societal drivers that undermined natural processes of disease prevention and control, which had developed through co-evolution over millennia. Shortcomings in addressing drivers has arisen from a lack or coordinated efforts among researchers, health stewards, societies at large, and governments. Fortunately, specialists collaborating under transdisciplinary and socio-ecological health umbrellas are increasingly integrating established and new techniques for disease modeling, prediction, diagnosis, treatment, control, and prevention. Such approaches often emphasize conservation of biodiversity for health protection, and they provide novel opportunities to increase the efficiency and probability of success.

Tsetse Invasion as an Emerging Threat to Socioecological Resilience of Pastoral Communities in Karamoja, Uganda

“…Vectors and vector-borne disease dynamics continue to change with changes in land use because they affect host-parasite dynamics at the landscape level. These dramatic changes have subsequently led to a loss of resilience (social and ecological) that has traditionally underpinned the adaptive capacity within dryland environments and societies [17,34]. This effect arises because the socioecological system connections within the drylands include the intricate interactions among the environment, vectors, their relationships with humans and the transmission of bacteria, viruses or protozoa [35,36].…”

“Health in” and “Health of” Social-Ecological Systems: A Practical Framework for the Management of Healthy and Resilient Agricultural and Natural Ecosystems

“…Despite repeated early calls for closer collaboration, the medical and veterinary spheres ( 53 , 54 ), and the environmental ( 55 ) and social sciences ( 37 , 56 ), have struggled to establish strong, long-lasting collaborations grounded on a clear shared framework ( 10 , 57 ). One Health has been presented as an approach to address health threats at the “human-animal-environment interface”, also referred to as “human-animal-ecosystem interface” ( 34 , 58 ), with both formulations used interchangeably by the same operators, including the tripartite coalition of UN agencies spearheading the concept ( 59 , 60 ). Beyond the semantic debate, these ambiguities illustrate the confusion as to the framing of the proposed systemic approach, which has been a major factor contributing to the misunderstanding between disciplines ( 56 ), and a barrier for inter- and trans-disciplinary solutions to improve inter-sectoral management of health risks and benefits ( 10 ).…”

“…), which are supported by distinct disciplines and management sectors. Defining and comparing all the various holistic approaches to health that have been proposed in recent decades is beyond the scope of this paper, and we refer to recent review papers for an exhaustive list and more details regarding each approach ( 12 , 34 , 50 ). As illustrated in Figure 1 , approaches to health and environmental management have progressively converged ( 61 ), and two main frameworks should be distinguished, based on the spatio-temporal boundaries of the systems and the health outcomes considered by each approach:…”

“… Expanding the concept of social-ecological systems to Social-Ecological System Health. Conceptual model connecting a social-ecological system template to the health of its components and the health of the whole social-ecological system (left and central parts of the graph); main integrated approaches associated with the specific health components and their interactions [definitions as in ( 12 , 34 ); right part of the graph]. BPEH, bio-physical environment health; AH, Animal Health; HH, Human Health; HEC, Human Environment Health; SESH, Social-Ecological System Health.…”

“…Among the diverse array of opinions and recommendations on COVID-19 crisis management, several scholars have called for a One Health approach ( 29 – 32 ) echoing earlier calls for the management of MERS coronavirus outbreak ( 33 ). The recognition of the interdependencies between the health of humans, non-human-animals and ecosystems, may seem relatively new for the general public and some decision-makers, although it has already generated a considerable amount of literature ( 34 ). Since the initial elaboration of an “ecosystem approach to human health” ( 35 ), several systemic approaches to health have been developed, including the EcoHealth ( 36 ) and One Health initiatives ( 37 ), ultimately converging ( 38 , 39 ), and Planetary Health.…”