The Effects Of Global Change On Infectious Diseases

Mosquitoes are the host to many diseases the pose a threat to humans, domestic animals, and wildlife. Endemic birds are the most affected by the transmission of avian diseases through mosquitoes. Controlling the mosquito popular is key in bringing back the native bird population.

Over the years, human existence has led to major environmental changes and global impacts. Recently, human activities have led to an increase in climatic changes threatening human life; such as, global warming, rising sea levels, increase in floods, and melting ice caps among other indicators (Klein, 2015). These environmental changes have been brought by rapid industrialization,

Her infection began when she was bitten by a mosquito which was seeking her protein-rich blood to nourish its eggs. As part of the process of sucking the droplet of blood from the girl, the mosquito, simultaneously injected saliva to ease the flow of blood into its proboscis. Malaria-causing pathogens gathered in the mosquito’s salivary glands and traveled into the girl’s body. Once in the body, the wormlike parasites moved to the girl’s liver to embed themselves allowing them to feed and multiply. By the time a week had passed, each parasite had consumed an entire liver cell and had replicated upwards of 40,000 times. A short time later the infected cells had exploded and the parasites had reentered her bloodstream. Now showing symptoms

Unfortunately, for individuals in the developing world resources are lacking. It is individuals in these situations that are extremely vulnerable to potential exposure. Climate change is also impacting disease transmission. Large environmental areas are shrinking due to urban sprawl which is leading to increased populations density’s, increased pathogen load, decreased distributions, and a greater prevalence of disease (Mills, Gage, Khan, 2010). Thus, larger numbers of individuals are living in close proximity of disease vectors.

As a result of the mosquitoes physically being able to occupy a different vector, certain diseases also begin to expand to occupy that vector as well. As stated by an article about the population dynamics of mosquitoes, “global changes . . . lead to an extension of the distribution areas of certain mosquito species and the emergence of associated vector-borne diseases” (Ezanno et al.). As mosquitoes shift the vector of where they live as a result of this global warming, they bring what they have with them. In this case, this means that the mosquitoes bring these diseases with them throughout this new vector. Not only do mosquitoes bring these diseases with them to these new places, depending on the climate in this new area, certain diseases

By learning about different viruses in class, it sparked my interest in further researching a common virus known to the word called West Nile virus. Affiliated with the genus Flavivirus, this virus can be transported globally due to being classified as a mosquito-borne arbovirus1. Mosquitoes, belonging to the genus Culex, can facilitate the transportation of this pathogen by consuming the blood of an infected bird, being the main reservoir, and then passing it on to another animal or human1-3. Mosquito activity is at its peak during the months of summer and autumn, therefore these months depict the most cases of West Nile virus4. Humans play no role in the transportation as they are coined dead end hosts due to not being able to produce enough

Global Perspective Portfolio Climate Change INTRODUCTION: Climate change is one of the most harmful and menacing problem of the world today. It affects lots of living organisms and perceptibly the ecosystem. Climate change has affected the earth these days more than ever before. Climate change is the alternation of the temperature or climate of the earth.

These surveillance programs should incorporate strategies which assure that the data is comparable over time and space, as well as being designed to pick up trends in WNV transmission levels (West Nile Virus, 2013). WNV surveillance programs should also be equipped with quantitative indicators like infection rate or vector index to represent the transmission activity in mosquito populations. In order to provide sufficient information to link surveillance indicators with the degree of human risk, these programs must be sustainable over a long period of time. The collection of mosquitos must also be implemented weekly throughout the transmission season and done at fixed collection areas. Through continuous monitoring can these programs present information that will be useful in creating thresholds to support decisions pertaining to vector control efforts and interventions (West Nile Virus, 2013). Surveillance methods, like sentinel chickens and dead bird surveillance could be conducive to mosquito-based surveillance in quantifying epizootic activity in some

Vector-borne disease organisms are important factors that promote the evolutionary increases of virulence. Disease organisms transmitted through vectors like mosquitoes, tend to be much more damaging than diseases that are simply transmitted by people coughing or sneezing (droplet transmission). In vector- borne diseases immobilizing the host does not prevent transmission, but it might even enhance it. Experimental studies indicate that mosquitoes are better able to bite a laboratory animal when it is sick with a vector-borne disease such as malaria than when it is healthy

Slowly spreading, infecting like rust does to a precious metal, Zika, the 1947 mosquito-born virus that has been hunting humanity over the last half-century, was first discovered in Uganda, Africa. At that time, the virus seemed harmless, manageable, so its isolation proceeded with poor endeavor, leading to its disruption. Gradually, Zika invaded towns, counties, states, and even went as far as to cross oceans to gain more territory, and although it has been unsuccessful of completely reaching our home, U.S. Texas, however, as years advance, the illness’ s claws increase in magnitude, hungrily grasping for more of the world, and unfortunately, Texas has failed in the attempts to halt those attacks, allowing portion of the enemy in.

The recent outbreak of the ebola virus in 2014 reminds the world of the vulnerability of society because of the great force of disease. However, this outbreak of ebola is miniscule in comparison to all the pestilence and plague that has emerged throughout history. Nothing compares to the bubonic plague, which killed one-third of Europe’s population, smallpox, which completely eradicated some indigenous populations in the Americas, and AIDS/HIV, which is one of the greatest challenges the world faces today. All of these are characterized by to no methods of treatment (at their height), extremely painful symptoms, and their ability to spread easily. The Black Death, smallpox, and AIDS may be considered the most devastating pandemics to

One major change in technology has been the increase in international travel. According to Weiss and McMichael (2004), “The speed of modern air travel works wonders for the dispersal of infectious diseases” (p. S74). Church (2004) adds to this by stating, “From an infectious disease perspective, air travel makes the world a global village because ‘microbial traffic’ follows the human host” (p. 564). Smolinski, Hamburg, and Lederberg (2003) explain that international travel now means that infectious diseases have no borders and has played a major role in spreading infectious diseases across the world. They also expand on the fact that the travel process and all the interactions that occur while traveling aid in the spread of diseases globally. Economic globalization and technology has also led to many changes in agriculture that are contributing to the rise of infectious diseases. Smolinski, Hamburg, and Lederberg (2003) state, “International trade in food and animal agriculture has increased markedly as an important aspect of globalization. The United States and other countries now enjoy more goods from more countries than ever before” (p. 68). Church (2004) explains that this is a problem by writing, “Food-borne and waterborne illnesses also may be imported from other countries” (p. 568). He also brings up the problem that the new practice of mass-production means that contamination and outbreaks now affect many more people. Weiss and McMichael (2004) expand on this by explaining that the agricultural practice of intense, single-species farming will also mean larger-scale epidemics when problems occur. Lastly, Lashley (2006) adds to these ideas by discussing how globalization has led to an increased demand of exotic foods year-round and this demand brings with it new infectious diseases. Not only do technological and economic growth contribute to the rise of

The main focus of the presentation was the threat of Aedes Aegypti borne diseases which is a specie of mosquito. Professor Beaty has studied the Aedes Aegypti for twenty years in Mexico, and is concerned with the potential threat of a Super Nidus due to domestication of the Aedes Aegypti and urbanization of arboviruses. Although the future he pictured seemed bleak, he presented research how to combat the issue. Some people think that creating vaccines is the answer but his research suggests the people should control the vector, or the mosquito in this case. The topic was related to the science of biology since it touched on the domestication of the Aedes Aegypti. Many pesticides can no longer harm the species due to genetic drift and mutation,

There are currently many features of modern society that increase ours risk for the development and spread of new infectious diseases, these include such diseases as lymes Disease, West Nile Virus, Staph. Aures (MRSA) and many other new and remerging infectious diseases. In modern society the main issues that are faced include such things as the density of the population, the increased resistance to current antibiotics and antibacterial agent, changing biodiversity, climate change, increase in the speed and efficacy of travel.

Aedes albopictus is considered to be the most invasive mosquito species in the world (1, 2) and there is an increased potential for its introduction into mainland Australia given the established populations discovered, since 2005, in the Torres Strait, the region that sandwiches between Papua New Guinea (PNG) and northern Australia (3). The aedine mosquito species have been culpably involved in the transmission cycles of pathogens of public health importance (1). Aedes albopictus is known to have both field and laboratory proven vector competence for a number of emerging and re-emerging viruses including chikungunya virus (CHIKV) and dengue virus (DENV). CHIKV and DENV are arthropod-borne (arboviruses) viruses transmitted by the Aedes genus (4). Dengue is considered the most important arboviral disease in the world affecting 390 million people every year (5, 6), and CHIKV has continued to conquer new territories; charting an unprecedented worldwide expansion (7-11). In Australia, dengue outbreaks occur regularly in northern Queensland where there is Aedes aegypti (12-14). Between November 2008 and May 2009, more than one thousand confirmed autochthonous cases of dengue were recorded in Cairns, north Queensland, and Aedes aegypti, the only competent dengue vector, at the time, was implicated. There is increasing global concern about recent outbreaks of pathogenic arboviruses from diverse viral families including