Excerpt

The Forum on Microbial Threats of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) held a public workshop in Washington, DC, on December 4 and 5, 2007, to explore the anticipated direct and indirect effects of global climate change and extreme weather events on infectious diseases of humans, animals, and plants and the implications of these health impacts for global and national security. Through invited presentations and discussions, invited speakers considered a range of topics related to climate change and infectious diseases, including the ecological and environmental contexts of climate and infectious diseases; direct and indirect influences of extreme weather events and climate change on infectious diseases; environmental trends and their influence on the transmission and geographic range of vector- and non-vector-borne infectious diseases; opportunities and challenges for the surveillance, prediction, and early detection of climate-related outbreaks of infectious diseases; and the international policy implications of the potentially far-reaching impacts of climate change on infectious disease.

Contents

• The National Academies
• Forum on Microbial Threats
• Board on Global Health
• Reviewers
• Preface
• Summary and Assessment
  • GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE AND EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS: UNDERSTANDING THE CONTRIBUTIONS TO INFECTIOUS DISEASE EMERGENCE
  • APPENDIX SA-1 A BRIEF HISTORY OF CLIMATE CHANGE
• 1. Climate Change Challenges
  • OVERVIEW
  • CLIMATE CHANGE, EXTREME EVENTS, AND HUMAN HEALTH
  • CLIMATE CHANGE AND HUMAN HEALTH
  • CLIMATE CHANGE FUTURES: HEALTH, ECOLOGICAL, AND ECONOMIC DIMENSIONS
  • IMPACTS OF GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE ON INFECTIOUS DISEASES
  • REFERENCES
• 2. Climate, Ecology, and Infectious Disease
  • OVERVIEW
  • THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT AND HUMAN HEALTH: THE CHOLERA MODEL
  • EXTREME WEATHER AND EPIDEMICS: RIFT VALLEY FEVER AND CHIKUNGUNYA FEVER
  • PLAGUE AND CLIMATE
  • CLIMATE CHANGE AND PLANT DISEASE RISK
  • CLIMATE CHANGE AND INFECTIOUS DISEASE: IMPACT ON HUMAN POPULATIONS IN THE ARCTIC
  • REFERENCES
• 3. Historical, Scientific, and Technological Approaches to Studying the Climate-Disease Connection
  • OVERVIEW
  • DROUGHT, EPIDEMIC DISEASE, AND MASSIVE POPULATION LOSS: 1,000 YEARS OF RECORD IN MEXICO
  • WILDLIFE HEALTH AS AN INDICATOR OF CLIMATE CHANGE
  • USE OF CLIMATE VARIATION IN VECTOR-BORNE DISEASE DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS
  • REFERENCES
• 4. Policy Implications of the Health Effects of Climate Change and Extreme Weather Events
  • OVERVIEW
  • INFLUENCES OF MIGRATION AND POPULATION MOBILITY
  • CLIMATE CHANGE, INFECTIOUS DISEASE, AND INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC HEALTH POLICY
  • REFERENCES
• Appendixes
  • A Agenda
  • B Acronyms
  • C Glossary
  • D Forum Member Biographies

Rapporteurs: David A Relman, Margaret A Hamburg, Eileen R Choffnes, Alison Mack

This project was supported by contracts between the National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Food and Drug Administration; U.S. Department of Defense, Department of the Army: Global Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response System, Medical Research and Materiel Command, and Defense Threat Reduction Agency; U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; U.S. Department of Homeland Security; U.S. Agency for International Development; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; American Society for Microbiology; Sanofi Pasteur; Burroughs Wellcome Fund; Pfizer; GlaxoSmithKline; Infectious Diseases Society of America; and the Merck Company Foundation.

Suggested citation:

IOM (Institute of Medicine). 2008. Global climate change and extreme weather events: understanding the contributions to infectious disease emergence. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the organizations or agencies that provided support for this project.

NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.