The spread of diseases from one natural habitat to another, less-conducive environment is one result of climate change, facilitated by the ease with which individuals can now move around the world. Here, Mike Wren provides a background to the likely impact on microbiological services.
The challenges that face clinical microbiologists have been listed previously and show that a higher proportion of disease is transmitted by insect vectors in the tropics than in the temperate regions of the globe. A higher proportion of the diseases convey long-lasting immunity in the temperate areas than in the tropics, and animal reservoirs of disease are more frequent in the tropics. Past history has shown that this is likely to change.
Most of the temperate diseases are acute rather than slow, chronic or latent, and the patient either dies or recovers. In the tropical regions, however, diseases are more or less split between lasting for weeks, months or years. Traditionally,
25 major human pathogens originated in the Old World, with only Chagas disease originating in the New World.1
Eight of the 15 temperate diseases probably reached humans from domestic animals, three from apes or rodents,
the remaining four of unknown origins (Table 1).
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