Under the Weather Climate, Ecosystems, and Infectious Disease (2001) / Chapter Skim
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Key Findings and Recommendations
Key Findings and Recommendations
Pages 103-108
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From page 103... ...
and thus can potentially affect the timing and intensity of disease outbreaks. However, disease incidence is also affected by factors such as sanitation and public health services, population density and demographics, land use changes, and travel patterns.
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From page 104... ...
Also, long-term climate change may influence regional climate variability patterns, hence limiting the predictive power of current observations. Recent technological advances will aid efforts to improve modeling of infectious disease epidemiology.
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From page 105... ...
KEY FINDINGS: THE POTENTIAL FOR DISEASE EARLY WARNING SYSTEMS As our understanding of climate/disease linkages is strengthened, epidemic control strategies should aim towards complementing "surveillance and response" with "prediction and prevention." Current strategies for controlling infectious disease epidemics depend largely on surveillance for new outbreaks followed by a rapid response to control the epidemic. In some contexts, however, climate forecasts and environmental observations could potentially be used to identify areas at high risk for disease outbreaks and thus aid efforts to limit the extent of epidemics or even prevent them from occurring.
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From page 106... ...
Progress in defining climate and infectious disease linkages can be greatly aided by focused efforts to apply recent technological advances such as remote sensing of ecological changes, high-speed computational modeling, and molecular techniques to track the geographic distribution and transport of specific pathogens. Further development of disease transmission models is needed to assess the risks posed by climatic and ecological changes.
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From page 107... ...
Research on climate and infectious disease linkages inherently requires interdisciplinary collaboration. Studies that consider the disease host, the disease agent, the environment, and society as an interactive system will require more interdisciplinary collaboration among climate modelers, meteorologists, ecologists, social scientists, and a wide array of medical and public health professionals.
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From page 108... ...
In closing, the committee wishes to emphasize that even if we are able to develop a strong understanding of the linkages among climate, ecosystems, and infectious diseases, and in turn, are able to create effective disease early warning systems, there will always be some element of unpredictability in climate variations and infectious disease outbreaks. Therefore, a prudent strategy is to set a high priority on reducing people's overall vulnerability to infectious disease through strong public health measures such as vector control efforts, water treatment systems, and vaccination programs.
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