Climate change brings the specter of new infectious diseases

Climate change will bring major changes to the epidemiology of infectious diseases through changes in microbial and vector geographic range.Human defenses against microbial diseases rely on advanced immunity that includes innate and adaptive arms and endothermy, which creates a thermal restriction zone for many microbes.Given that microbes can adapt to higher temperatures, there is concern that global warming will select for microbes with higher heat tolerance that can defeat our endothermy defenses and bring new infectious disease.