Session: Global Environmental Change and Disease Emergence

3275.0: Monday, November 8, 2004: 2:30 PM-4:00 PM

Oral

Global Environmental Change and Disease Emergence

Evidence is building on the adverse effects that land cover disruption can have on human and wildlife health. These changes affect the hosts or vectors of disease and the pathogens and parasites that breed, develop, and transmit disease. Landscape impacts such as deforestation, human settlement sprawl, industrial development, road construction (e.g., linear disturbances), large water control projects (e.g., dams, canals, irrigation systems, reservoirs), and climate change have been accompanied by the spread of pathogens into new areas. Practices such as bushmeat hunting and intensity animal agriculture further create risks for human disease emergence The World Health Organization has recorded over 36 new emerging infectious diseases since 1976; many of these and reemerging diseases, such as malaria and dengue fever, are the direct result of landscape influence on disease ecology. In fact, it is estimated that 75% of all emerging diseases stem from animal zoonoses. This session addresses these global environmental health issues and highlights a new collaboration across conservation biologists, wildlife veterinarians, and public health scientists, the Consortium for Conservation Medicine.

Learning Objectives: Participants will gain an understanding of the impact of changes in the environment on human health and promising approaches to mitigate negative effects.

Organizer(s):

Eckhard Kleinau, Dr PH, MD

Moderator(s):

Jonathan A Patz, MD, MPH

2:30 PM

Introductory Remarks

2:35 PM

Land use change and disease emergence
Jonathan A Patz, MD, MPH

2:55 PM

Understanding the ecology of Nipah and Hendra viruses: Two novel emerging zoonotic paramyxoviruses
Jonathan Epstein, DVM, MPH, Peter Daszak, PhD

3:15 PM

Ecology and Public Health: The Case of Artisanal Gold Mining and Infectious Diseases
Ellen Silbergeld, PhD