Climate change and its impact on infectious diseases in Asia

Author(s): Amanda Zain , MBBS, MRCPCH ¹ ^, ² , Sapna P Sadarangani , MBBS, ABIM (IM, ID) ³ ^, ⁴ ^, ⁵ , Lynette Pei-Chi Shek , MBBS (Hons), MRCPCH ¹ ^, ² , Shawn Vasoo , MBBS, MRCP ³ ^, ⁴ ^, ⁵

Publication date (Electronic): 23 April 2024

Journal: Singapore Medical Journal

Publisher: Wolters Kluwer - Medknow

Keywords: Climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, health systems response, infectious diseases, vector-borne diseases

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Abstract

Climate change, particularly increasing temperature, changes in rainfall, extreme weather events and changes in vector ecology, impacts the transmission of many climate-sensitive infectious diseases. Asia is the world’s most populous, rapidly evolving and diverse continent, and it is already experiencing the effects of climate change. Climate change intersects with population, sociodemographic and geographical factors, amplifying the public health impact of infectious diseases and potentially widening existing disparities. In this narrative review, we outline the evidence of the impact of climate change on infectious diseases of importance in Asia, including vector-borne diseases, food- and water-borne diseases, antimicrobial resistance and other infectious diseases. We also highlight the imperative need for strategic intersectoral collaboration at the national and global levels and for the health sector to implement adaptation and mitigation measures, including responsibility for its own greenhouse gas emissions.

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The global distribution of the arbovirus vectors Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus

Moritz Ug Kraemer, Marianne Sinka, Kirsten A. Duda … (2015)

Dengue and chikungunya are increasing global public health concerns due to their rapid geographical spread and increasing disease burden. Knowledge of the contemporary distribution of their shared vectors, Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus remains incomplete and is complicated by an ongoing range expansion fuelled by increased global trade and travel. Mapping the global distribution of these vectors and the geographical determinants of their ranges is essential for public health planning. Here we compile the largest contemporary database for both species and pair it with relevant environmental variables predicting their global distribution. We show Aedes distributions to be the widest ever recorded; now extensive in all continents, including North America and Europe. These maps will help define the spatial limits of current autochthonous transmission of dengue and chikungunya viruses. It is only with this kind of rigorous entomological baseline that we can hope to project future health impacts of these viruses. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.08347.001

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Diverse and abundant antibiotic resistance genes in Chinese swine farms.

Yong-Guan Zhu, Timothy A. Johnson, Jian-Qiang Su … (2013)

Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) are emerging contaminants posing a potential worldwide human health risk. Intensive animal husbandry is believed to be a major contributor to the increased environmental burden of ARGs. Despite the volume of antibiotics used in China, little information is available regarding the corresponding ARGs associated with animal farms. We assessed type and concentrations of ARGs at three stages of manure processing to land disposal at three large-scale (10,000 animals per year) commercial swine farms in China. In-feed or therapeutic antibiotics used on these farms include all major classes of antibiotics except vancomycins. High-capacity quantitative PCR arrays detected 149 unique resistance genes among all of the farm samples, the top 63 ARGs being enriched 192-fold (median) up to 28,000-fold (maximum) compared with their respective antibiotic-free manure or soil controls. Antibiotics and heavy metals used as feed supplements were elevated in the manures, suggesting the potential for coselection of resistance traits. The potential for horizontal transfer of ARGs because of transposon-specific ARGs is implicated by the enrichment of transposases--the top six alleles being enriched 189-fold (median) up to 90,000-fold in manure--as well as the high correlation (r(2) = 0.96) between ARG and transposase abundance. In addition, abundance of ARGs correlated directly with antibiotic and metal concentrations, indicating their importance in selection of resistance genes. Diverse, abundant, and potentially mobile ARGs in farm samples suggest that unmonitored use of antibiotics and metals is causing the emergence and release of ARGs to the environment.

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Global hotspots and correlates of emerging zoonotic diseases

Toph Allen, Kris Murray, Carlos Zambrana-Torrelio … (2017)

Zoonoses originating from wildlife represent a significant threat to global health, security and economic growth, and combatting their emergence is a public health priority. However, our understanding of the mechanisms underlying their emergence remains rudimentary. Here we update a global database of emerging infectious disease (EID) events, create a novel measure of reporting effort, and fit boosted regression tree models to analyze the demographic, environmental and biological correlates of their occurrence. After accounting for reporting effort, we show that zoonotic EID risk is elevated in forested tropical regions experiencing land-use changes and where wildlife biodiversity (mammal species richness) is high. We present a new global hotspot map of spatial variation in our zoonotic EID risk index, and partial dependence plots illustrating relationships between events and predictors. Our results may help to improve surveillance and long-term EID monitoring programs, and design field experiments to test underlying mechanisms of zoonotic disease emergence.

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Singapore Med J

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Singapore Med J

Journal ID (publisher-id): SMJ

Journal ID (publisher-id): Singapore Med J

Title: Singapore Medical Journal

Publisher: Wolters Kluwer - Medknow (India )

ISSN (Print): 0037-5675

ISSN (Electronic): 2737-5935

Publication date Collection: April 2024

Publication date (Electronic): 23 April 2024

Volume: 65

Issue: 4

Pages: 211-219

Affiliations

[1 ]Centre for Sustainable Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore

[2 ]Khoo Teck Puat-National University Children’s Medical Institute, National University Health System, Singapore

[3 ]National Centre for Infectious Diseases, Singapore

[4 ]Department of Infectious Diseases, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore

[5 ]Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Author notes

[*]

These authors are joint first authors.

Correspondence: Dr. Amanda Zain, Assistant Dean, Department of Paediatrics and Centre for Sustainable Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, 1E, Kent Ridge Road, NUHS Tower Block, Level 10, 119228, Singapore. E-mail: amandazain@ 123456nus.edu.sg

Article

Publisher ID: SMJ-65-211

DOI: 10.4103/singaporemedj.SMJ-2023-180

PMC ID: 11132621

PubMed ID: 38650059

SO-VID: 740b4321-1f87-421a-9c7b-3ced8aaf3f12

License:

This is an open access journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.

Climate change and its impact on infectious diseases in Asia

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Climate Change: Open Access

Most cited references 91

The global distribution of the arbovirus vectors Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus

Diverse and abundant antibiotic resistance genes in Chinese swine farms.

Global hotspots and correlates of emerging zoonotic diseases

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