Climate Change and Vectorborne Diseases

T he effects of climate change are widespread and rapidly intensifying and are largely driven by greenhouse-gas emissions from burning fossil fuels. The extent of change is most extreme in highland and polar regions (Fig. Given the current policies and actions, a warming of 2.5C to 2.9C or more by the end of this century is expected. arming and other manifestations of climate change -including changes in precipitation, with increased flooding in some areas and drought in others -have important implications for vectorborne diseases through their effects on pathogens, vectors, and hosts, as well as on our ability to prevent and treat these diseases (Fig. Yet attributing changes in the distribution and frequency of vectors and diseases to climate change is challenging because other factors, including land-use changes, 3 the abundance of reservoir hosts, 4 and control measures, 5 also contribute to these changes. Furthermore, it may be difficult to distinguish between natural climate variability and human-influenced change, 6 although scientific techniques to do so are emerging. Despite these complexities, it is clear that the components of vectorborne disease systems, including pathogens, vectors, and reservoir hosts, are highly responsive to the varied environments they inhabit and that observed changes in the rates of vectorborne diseases at given locations are often associated with concomitant changes in the local climate.