Infectious Disease Drivers

The number of emerging infectious diseases in humans, other animals, and plants is on the rise. Human infections often originate from wildlife, and have connections to socio-economic, environmental, and ecological factors. There is a concern that human-caused global changes are contributing to increases in disease risk. We’ll explore disease management in the U.S. National Science Foundation’s “Discovery Files”.
Ecological factors, including more interactions among humans and wildlife that carry pathogens are causing the number of emerging infectious diseases to increase.
NSF-supported researchers at the University of Notre Dame have amassed a dataset containing 2,938 observations of infectious disease drivers across 1,497 host-parasite combinations, including plant, animal, and human hosts.
They found that biodiversity loss, chemical pollution, introduced species, and the impacts of a changing climate were associated with increases in disease-related cases, while urbanization was associated with decreases in disease endpoints.
These findings should help better target disease management and surveillance efforts around the globe. And point to lowering greenhouse gas emissions, and increasing ecosystem health management, as key to reducing the burden of plant, animal, and human diseases.
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