Climate change brings the specter of new infectious diseases

2020/01/05 by Arturo Casadevall · 3 citations
Medicine · Environmental Science · #Zoonotic diseases and public health #Climate Change and Health Impacts #Viral Infections and Vectors #Climate change #Infectious disease (medical specialty) #Global warming #Biology #Environmental ethics #Ecology #Disease #Medicine

paper · pdf · doi:10.1172/jci135003

openalex publication_date 2020/01/05 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30

Abstract

Climate change will bring major changes to the epidemiology of infectious diseases through changes in microbial and vector geographic range.Human defenses against microbial diseases rely on advanced immunity that includes innate and adaptive arms and endothermy, which creates a thermal restriction zone for many microbes.Given that microbes can adapt to higher temperatures, there is concern that global warming will select for microbes with higher heat tolerance that can defeat our endothermy defenses and bring new infectious disease.

Citations

• Vertebrate Endothermy Restricts Most Fungi as Potential Pathogens
• Bat White-Nose Syndrome: An Emerging Fungal Pathogen?

Cited by

• Shifts in global bat diversity suggest a possible role of climate change in the emergence of SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2
• Over half of known human pathogenic diseases can be aggravated by climate change
• Climate change and infectious diseases [wikipedia]

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