title: Impact of climate change on human infectious diseases: Empirical evidence and human adaptation.
abstract: Climate change refers to long-term shifts in weather conditions and patterns of extreme weather events. It may lead to changes in health threat to human beings, multiplying existing health problems. This review examines the scientific evidences on the impact of climate change on human infectious diseases. It identifies research progress and gaps on how human society may respond to, adapt to, and prepare for the related changes. Based on a survey of related publications between 1990 and 2015, the terms used for literature selection reflect three aspects--the components of infectious diseases, climate variables, and selected infectious diseases. Humans' vulnerability to the potential health impacts by climate change is evident in literature. As an active agent, human beings may control the related health effects that may be effectively controlled through adopting proactive measures, including better understanding of the climate change patterns and of the compound disease-specific health effects, and effective allocation of technologies and resources to promote healthy lifestyles and public awareness. The following adaptation measures are recommended: 1) to go beyond empirical observations of the association between climate change and infectious diseases and develop more scientific explanations, 2) to improve the prediction of spatial-temporal process of climate change and the associated shifts in infectious diseases at various spatial and temporal scales, and 3) to establish locally effective early warning systems for the health effects of predicated climate change.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, College of Global Change and Earth System Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoxu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Geography, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX 78666-4684, USA. Electronic address: yl10@txstate.edu.
authors.forename: Yongmei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Center for Earth System Sciences, Tsinghua University Beijing, 100084, China.
authors.forename: Sen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, College of Global Change and Earth System Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
authors.forename: Lifan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, College of Global Change and Earth System Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Center for Earth System Sciences, Tsinghua University Beijing, 100084, China; Department of Geography, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA. Electronic address: bingxu@tsinghua.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Bing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Xu
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000818:Animals; D002980:Climate; D057231:Climate Change; D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000469:parasitology / Q000635:transmission; D004199:Disease Vectors; D006801:Humans; D014887:Weather
keywords: Adaptation; Climate change; Health impact; Human infectious diseases; Pathogen; Transmission