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NEXT GENERATION VIRUSES
 Diseases
soar with climate change,
Pandemic Preparedness!
The number of emerging infectious diseases will
soar in the coming decades as Earth’s climate continues to warm,
a panel of microbiologists told a news conference in Toronto May
25, 2007. Rising global temperatures will change the way dozens
of diseases, including malaria, lymes disease and yet unknown
viruses, impact human health. Diseases normally confined to
tropical zones will spread into more temperate climates, for
example, and an increase in extreme weather events, such as
hurricanes, tsunamis and tornadoes, will create more public
health crises. The huge demand for global travel — there are
roughly 7 million airplane arrivals around the globe each year —
will also increase infectious disease rates, said Rita Colwell,
a distinguished professor at the University of Maryland, College
Park, who sat on the panel. “You are just one cough away from an
infectious disease you would not have been exposed to 50 years
ago,” she said. Microbiologists say a global network of
laboratories that share information is imperative to preventing
the spread of infectious diseases around the world. The link
between environment and public health is just one of the 3,000
topics being presented at the American Society of Microbiology’s
107th annual general meeting in Toronto this week. Scientists,
including 400 from Canada, will present research on all facets
of microbiology. But three big themes — the environment, public
health and biotechnology— are highlighted.
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Roughly 85 per cent of the people affected by the
2004 tsunami in south Asia got some sort of infectious disease,
said Joan Rose, a member of the six-person panel and professor
at Michigan State University.
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