Climate Change and Infectious Diseases

Dear Colleagues,

The climate is continuing to change, with land and sea temperatures increasing; precipitation patterns changing; sea ice extent shrinking; glacier volume and snow cover declining; sea levels rising; and climate-related extremes, such as heat waves, heavy precipitation and droughts increasing in frequency, duration, and intensity.

Climate change is also expected to alter infectious disease transmission, either directly or more indirectly through these environmental impacts. Specifically, climate change can shift the distribution of vector-, food- or waterborne diseases and intensify or reduce those impacts on public health. As such, climate change can be seen as a risk multiplier that acts in concert with existing socio-economic vulnerabilities and other drivers of disease.

However, the field suffers from a number of challenges. One is the question of attribution, which presents a number of methodological hurdles. While extreme weather events can statistically be linked to climate change, quantifying the contribution of climate change on individual events is problematic, no less the relative contribution of climate change to the disease burden. Another challenge relates to accounting for population vulnerabilities and resilience. Models of infectious disease under climate change scenarios may over- or under-estimate public health impacts if they do not address socioeconomic contexts, while doing so may incorporate additional uncertainties into the study.

This Special Issue in Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease aims to advance the field of infectious disease impacts of climate change with topical contributions. It aims to synthesise the state-of-the-art in the field from the perspective of public health, while also addressing the technical challenges. This issue welcomes original, quantitative or qualitative studies and is intended to include papers that measure, monitor and describe infectious disease impacts. Of particular interest are decision-support tools for identifying and prioritizing risks through surveillance, vulnerability, impact and adaptation assessments. Interventions on climate-sensitive infectious disease risks are also of interest, particularly rigorous cost-effectiveness and program evaluations. Monitoring environmental precursors of disease can be used as early warning for health threats and the application of these tools is of great interest to public health practitioners. This Special Issue represents an effort to capture current developments in the field and provide a forum for cutting edge contributions to the literature.

Prof. Dr. Jan C. Semenza
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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