Global health. The current scenario and future perspectives

140 8. Emerging and Reemerging Diseases in the Context of the Current Sociosanitary Crisis Valeria Stuardo Ávila A new epidemiological transition In 1971, epidemiologist Abdel Omran first established the concept of epidemiological transition, referring to the shift in patterns of health and disease from being predominantly driven by infectious diseases to degenerative diseases. He directly linked this change to population structure (Omran, 1971). For about half a century, non-communicable chronic diseases have been highly relevant due to their significant impact on global morbidity and mortality. However, the Covid-19 epidemic demonstrates that we might indeed be witnessing a new epidemiological transition. This major humanitarian and health crisis forces us to examine the effects that globalization has had on current patterns of health and disease, as communicable diseases reclaim their role. The health emergency caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which originated in Wuhan, China (Hui et al., 2020), at the end of 2019, poses a challenge for societies and global health. It challenges not only our understanding of epidemiological transition but also the positivist concept of 19 th -century epidemiology. Communicable diseases are reemerging as a real problem that affects not only the most disadvantaged societies but also economically developed countries. Emerging and reemerging diseases have been of great interest in public health in recent decades. This has been driven by community research that emerged from the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the early 1980s and has become a focus of research and study across different disciplines (Valdés García, n. d.). Currently, public health is interested in investigating their social determinants and the causes behind their reactivation. Some authors consider emerging and reemerging diseases a controversial topic that undoubtedly points to a major problem in human health and breaks away from the linear process of health based on development and epidemiological transition, as popularized in some literature (Franco, n. d.). Behind these new paradigms, a sociocultural perspective becomes crucial, and it is essential to study health phenomena outside a reductionist approach and prioritize social complexity. Due to their dynamic characteristics, the causes of the emergence and reemergence of communicable diseases need to be studied in a global context, as they are subject to various social determinants. Literature