Climate change causing disease to spread faster

[hoon]

A "deadly dozen" diseases ranging from avian flu to yellow fever are likely to spread more because of climate change, the Wildlife Conservation Society said on Tuesday. "Even minor disturbances can have far reaching consequences on what diseases (wild animals) might encounter and transmit as climate changes."

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/...te-health.html

[Rog]

Isn't it because we 'need' to travel to exotic countries and bring back pathogens as a bonus?

FTA:"Among phrases, people said they were "under the weather" when ill, he noted."
Yeah, back in those days they thought one could get a cold because of the cold weather. Hence, "under the weather".

Must be a slow news day for the NYTimes.

[wardengineering]

Pandemic diseases
As I posted earlier, millions of dollars are being foolishly spent trying to prevent a naturally occurring phenomenon when it should be spent on projects to protect the public from water shortages, increased flooding, more powerful storm systems, seismic events and fire storms. Pandemic diseases will develop and species disappear.

The next pandemic disease could be Lyme disease. Lyme disease acclimatizes to the immune system and can masquerade as many other diseases. Lyme disease tests are notoriously inaccurate, leading to rampant under-diagnosis of the disease.

Lyme disease is caused by Borrelia Burgdorferi, spirochete bacteria similar to the bacteria that cause Syphilis. Lyme disease, known as the “Great Imitator” can masquerade as: Attention Deficit Disorder, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Alzheimer’s disease, Schizophrenia, Depression, Multiple Sclerosis, arthritis, heart conditions, and more.
The July, 2004 issue of Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients indicates that Lyme Disease is thought to be the fastest spreading infectious disease in the world, with more than 200,000 new cases per year in the United States alone.

One factor being crucial to the distribution of diseases is the transport of animals and tourists traveling. Every single day of the year, five to eight billion people travel internationally, not including domestic travels. The sources of the illnesses can in very many cases be found among animals rather than anywhere else. Scientists have found that each year two new organisms emerge that has the potential to bring on pandemics — and a stunning 98 % of those stem from the animal world. So if we want to prevent the uncontrollable spreading of fatal diseases, for instance, the global transport of animals will have to be observed carefully. Veterinary and agricultural security is thus crucial to improve human security.

[wolranes]

I agree. Adaption is where things are at right now. Stopping this thing sailed long ago.

[Karl]

Not only faster, but possibly further.

One of the established facts of ecology is that, closer to the Equator there is a higher diversity of species. But this higher biodiversity of the tropics is true not only of plants and animals of the rainforest, but also the potentially pathogenic (and other) micro-organisms.

So, in a scenario of sufficient warming (which would be the functional equivalent of the outer limits of the tropics shifting northwards and southwards) the possible range of these disease-causing organisms could also expand accordingly (at the very least for the summer months).