Elsevier

Environment International

Volume 121, Part 1, December 2018, Pages 703-713
Environment International

Review article
Human infectious diseases and the changing climate in the Arctic

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2018.09.042Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Highlights

  • Infectious diseases rates in the Arctic are affected by the changing climate

  • Zoonoses and vector-borne diseases are associated with changes in animal and vector ecology

  • Tick-borne diseases, tularemia, and anthrax are the most researched Arctic diseases in this field

  • Most of the research in this field appears to be about Russia and Canada

Abstract

Climatic factors, especially temperature, precipitation, and humidity play an important role in disease transmission. As the Arctic changes at an unprecedented rate due to climate change, understanding how climatic factors and climate change affect infectious disease rates is important for minimizing human and economic costs. The purpose of this systematic review was to compile recent studies in the field and compare the results to a previously published review. English language searches were conducted in PubMed, ScienceDirect, Scopus, and PLOS One. Russian language searches were conducted in the Scientific Electronic Library “eLibrary.ru”. This systematic review yielded 22 articles (51%) published in English and 21 articles (49%) published in Russian since 2012. Articles about zoonotic and vector-borne diseases accounted for 67% (n = 29) of the review. Tick-borne diseases, tularemia, anthrax, and vibriosis were the most researched diseases likely to be impacted by climatic factors in the Arctic. Increased temperature and precipitation are predicted to have the greatest impact on infectious diseases in the Arctic.

Keywords

Human infectious disease
Arctic
Climate change
Zoonosis
Vector-borne
One health

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