Effects of Climate Change On Infectious Diseases

19 feb 2009
Effects of Climate Change On Infectious Diseases

Recent research has predicted that climate change may expand the scope of human infectious diseases. A new review, however, argues that climate change may have a negligible effect on pathogens or even reduce their ranges. The paper has sparked debate in the ecological community. The newly suitable areas for diseases will tend to be in more affluent regions where medicines are in widespread use and can more readily combat the diseases. The dramatic contraction of malaria during a century of warming suggests that economic forces might be just as important as climate in determining pathogen ranges. Scientists have used the fact that infectious diseases are most prevalent in the tropics to argue that warmer, wetter conditions that might occur under climate change would lead to an increase in infectious disease transmission. Warming trends over the last 60 years have led instead to an increase in hot, dry, desert-like climates. So that infectious diseases don't all increase during warm, wet weather. Extracted from: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090401112448.htm