Climate change is already affecting the spread of infectious diseases--and human health and biodiversity worldwide--according to disease ecologists reporting research results in the August 2, 2013 issue of the journal Science. Modeling disease outcomes from host and parasite responses to climate variables, they say, could help public health officials and environmental managers address the challenges posed by the changing landscape of infectious disease.
An innovative tool for teaching the fundamentals of epidemiology, the science of how infectious diseases move through a population, has been developed by an international team of scientists. The tool is helping epidemiologists improve the mathematical models they use to study outbreaks of diseases like cholera, AIDS and malaria.
What kills most civilians during wartime? It's not the bullets, or the missiles, or the shrapnel from bombs. It’s unsafe water, lack of food, inadequate medical care, unsafe communities -- the absence of public health.