scholarly journals Conservation, development and the management of infectious disease: avian influenza in China, 2004–2012

2017 ◽  
Vol 372 (1722) ◽  
pp. 20160126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tong Wu ◽  
Charles Perrings
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Risk Factors ◽  
Avian Influenza ◽  
Wildlife Conservation ◽  
Disease Risk ◽  
Risk Mitigation ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Migratory Bird ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Economic Risk

There is growing evidence that wildlife conservation measures have mixed effects on the emergence and spread of zoonotic disease. Wildlife conservation has been found to have both positive (dilution) and negative (contagion) effects. In the case of avian influenza H5N1 in China, the focus has been on negative effects. Lakes and wetlands attracting migrating waterfowl have been argued to be disease hotspots. We consider the implications of waterfowl conservation for H5N1 infections in both poultry and humans between 2004 and 2012. We model both environmental and economic risk factors. Environmental risk factors comprise the conditions that structure interaction between wild and domesticated birds. Economic risk factors comprise the cost of disease, biosecurity measures and disease risk mitigation. We find that H5N1 outbreaks in poultry populations are indeed sensitive to the existence of wild-domesticated bird mixing zones, but not in the way we would expect from the literature. We find that risk is decreasing in protected migratory bird habitat. Since the number of human cases is increasing in the number of poultry outbreaks, as expected, the implication is that the protection of wetlands important for migratory birds offers unexpected human health benefits. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Conservation, biodiversity and infectious disease: scientific evidence and policy implications’.

scholarly journals Does the impact of biodiversity differ between emerging and endemic pathogens? The need to separate the concepts of hazard and risk

2017 ◽  
Vol 372 (1722) ◽  
pp. 20160129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Parviez R. Hosseini ◽  
James N. Mills ◽  
Anne-Hélène Prieur-Richard ◽  
Vanessa O. Ezenwa ◽  
Xavier Bailly ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Disease Risk ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Pathogen Prevalence ◽  
Interactive Relationship ◽  
Hazard And Risk ◽  
Disease Risks ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Biodiversity is of critical value to human societies, but recent evidence that biodiversity may mitigate infectious-disease risk has sparked controversy among researchers. The majority of work on this topic has focused on direct assessments of the relationship between biodiversity and endemic-pathogen prevalence, without disentangling intervening mechanisms; thus study outcomes often differ, fuelling more debate. Here, we suggest two critical changes to the approach researchers take to understanding relationships between infectious disease, both endemic and emerging, and biodiversity that may help clarify sources of controversy. First, the distinct concepts of hazards versus risks need to be separated to determine how biodiversity and its drivers may act differently on each. This distinction is particularly important since it illustrates that disease emergence drivers in humans could be quite different to the general relationship between biodiversity and transmission of endemic pathogens. Second, the interactive relationship among biodiversity, anthropogenic change and zoonotic disease risk, including both direct and indirect effects, needs to be recognized and accounted for. By carefully disentangling these interactions between humans' activities and pathogen circulation in wildlife, we suggest that conservation efforts could mitigate disease risks and hazards in novel ways that complement more typical disease control efforts. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Conservation, biodiversity and infectious disease: scientific evidence and policy implications’.

Relations between socio-economic risk factors, home learning environment and children’s language competencies: Findings from a German study

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharina Kluczniok ◽  
Michael Mudiappa
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Learning Environment ◽  
Protective Factor ◽  
Panel Study ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Home Learning Environment ◽  
Economic Risk ◽  
Everyday Activities ◽  
Home Learning ◽  
Language Competencies

This paper focuses on the influence of socio-economic risk factors and different aspects of the home learning environment in early childhood on children’s language competencies (vocabulary and grammar skills). The assumption is that children with more risk factors have lower competencies, but the home learning environment (measured by everyday activities at home and cultural activities) acts as a protective factor against risk. The data ( n = 2406 children) are a sample of the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), which collects longitudinal data on a sample of four-year-old children starting in preschool. The regression models show higher levels of vocabulary and grammar skills for children with fewer socio-economic risk factors. This influence persists even after adding both indicators of the home learning environment. However, there is an additional small effect of the home learning environment on children’s language competencies. Practical and policy implications of the study are discussed, especially against the background of the reduction of social disparities in Germany.

scholarly journals Human infectious disease burdens decrease with urbanization but not with biodiversity

2017 ◽  
Vol 372 (1722) ◽  
pp. 20160122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chelsea L. Wood ◽  
Alex McInturff ◽  
Hillary S. Young ◽  
DoHyung Kim ◽  
Kevin D. Lafferty
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Disease Transmission ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Dilution Effect ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Life Years ◽  
Over Time

Infectious disease burdens vary from country to country and year to year due to ecological and economic drivers. Recently, Murray et al. (Murray CJ et al . 2012 Lancet 380 , 2197–2223. ( doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(12)61689-4 )) estimated country-level morbidity and mortality associated with a variety of factors, including infectious diseases, for the years 1990 and 2010. Unlike other databases that report disease prevalence or count outbreaks per country, Murray et al. report health impacts in per-person disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), allowing comparison across diseases with lethal and sublethal health effects. We investigated the spatial and temporal relationships between DALYs lost to infectious disease and potential demographic, economic, environmental and biotic drivers, for the 60 intermediate-sized countries where data were available and comparable. Most drivers had unique associations with each disease. For example, temperature was positively associated with some diseases and negatively associated with others, perhaps due to differences in disease agent thermal optima, transmission modes and host species identities. Biodiverse countries tended to have high disease burdens, consistent with the expectation that high diversity of potential hosts should support high disease transmission. Contrary to the dilution effect hypothesis, increases in biodiversity over time were not correlated with improvements in human health, and increases in forestation over time were actually associated with increased disease burden. Urbanization and wealth were associated with lower burdens for many diseases, a pattern that could arise from increased access to sanitation and healthcare in cities and increased investment in healthcare. The importance of urbanization and wealth helps to explain why most infectious diseases have become less burdensome over the past three decades, and points to possible levers for further progress in improving global public health. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Conservation, biodiversity and infectious disease: scientific evidence and policy implications’.

scholarly journals The social benefits of private infectious disease-risk mitigation

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 467-479 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin R. Morin ◽  
Charles Perrings ◽  
Ann Kinzig ◽  
Simon Levin
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Disease Risk ◽  
Risk Mitigation ◽  
Social Benefits ◽  
The Social

scholarly journals Null expectations for disease dynamics in shrinking habitat: dilution or amplification?

2017 ◽  
Vol 372 (1722) ◽  
pp. 20160173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina L. Faust ◽  
Andrew P. Dobson ◽  
Nicole Gottdenker ◽  
Laura S. P. Bloomfield ◽  
Hamish I. McCallum ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Habitat Loss ◽  
Disease Risk ◽  
Dilution Effect ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Pathogen Transmission ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Infection Prevalence ◽  
Density Dependent ◽  
Host Competence

As biodiversity declines with anthropogenic land-use change, it is increasingly important to understand how changing biodiversity affects infectious disease risk. The dilution effect hypothesis, which points to decreases in biodiversity as critical to an increase in infection risk, has received considerable attention due to the allure of a win–win scenario for conservation and human well-being. Yet some empirical data suggest that the dilution effect is not a generalizable phenomenon. We explore the response of pathogen transmission dynamics to changes in biodiversity that are driven by habitat loss using an allometrically scaled multi-host model. With this model, we show that declining habitat, and thus declining biodiversity, can lead to either increasing or decreasing infectious-disease risk, measured as endemic prevalence. Whether larger habitats, and thus greater biodiversity, lead to a decrease (dilution effect) or increase (amplification effect) in infection prevalence depends upon the pathogen transmission mode and how host competence scales with body size. Dilution effects were detected for most frequency-transmitted pathogens and amplification effects were detected for density-dependent pathogens. Amplification effects were also observed over a particular range of habitat loss in frequency-dependent pathogens when we assumed that host competence was greatest in large-bodied species. By contrast, only amplification effects were observed for density-dependent pathogens; host competency only affected the magnitude of the effect. These models can be used to guide future empirical studies of biodiversity–disease relationships across gradients of habitat loss. The type of transmission, the relationship between host competence and community assembly, the identity of hosts contributing to transmission, and how transmission scales with area are essential factors to consider when elucidating the mechanisms driving disease risk in shrinking habitat. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Conservation, biodiversity and infectious disease: scientific evidence and policy implications'.

scholarly journals Risk Factors for Infectious Diseases in Urban Environments of Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review and Critical Appraisal of Evidence

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew R. Boyce ◽  
Rebecca Katz ◽  
Claire J. Standley
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Risk Factors ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Disease Risk ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Health Systems Strengthening ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Original Research ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Sub Saharan

Our world is rapidly urbanizing. According to the United Nations, between 1990 and 2015, the percent of the world’s population living in urban areas grew from 43% to 54%. Estimates suggest that this trend will continue and that over 68% of the world’s population will call cities home by 2050, with the majority of urbanization occurring in African countries. This urbanization is already having a profound effect on global health and could significantly impact the epidemiology of infectious diseases. A better understanding of infectious disease risk factors specific to urban settings is needed to plan for and mitigate against future urban outbreaks. We conducted a systematic literature review of the Web of Science and PubMed databases to assess the risk factors for infectious diseases in the urban environments of sub-Saharan Africa. A search combining keywords associated with cities, migration, African countries, infectious disease, and risk were used to identify relevant studies. Original research and meta-analyses published between 2004 and 2019 investigating geographical and behavioral risk factors, changing disease distributions, or control programs were included in the study. The search yielded 3610 papers, and 106 met the criteria for inclusion in the analysis. Papers were categorized according to risk factors, geographic area, and study type. The papers covered 31 countries in sub-Saharan Africa with East Africa being the most represented sub-region. Malaria and HIV were the most frequent disease focuses of the studies. The results of this work can inform public health policy as it relates to capacity building and health systems strengthening in rapidly urbanizing areas, as well as highlight knowledge gaps that warrant additional research.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document