While our work focused primarily on the human health aspect of the syndemic, we heartily agree that increased appreciation of the complexity and nuances of its environmental component is equally important.
It is precisely because of differing disciplinary orientations and perspectives that we encourage strategic cross-disciplinary partnerships and multifaceted approaches to addressing HIV/AIDS–environment issues. Important subtleties regarding the HIV/AIDS–environment dynamic (and indeed, even larger principles undergirding the relationship) may be overlooked when a single perspective or orientation is applied. We hope that a syndemic framework can begin to address these blind spots.
Further study of the complex relationship between HIV/AIDS and the environment and additional integrated interventions to address the syndemic are needed. We agree that to do so demands a broader and more nuanced view, of both the HIV/AIDS epidemic and environmental systems.