Climate Change and Infections on the Move in North America

Figures & data

Table 1 Several Human Pathogens, Their Mode of Transmission, Reported or Suspected Association to Climate Change or Its Consequences, and Representative References

Pathogen	Mode of Transmission	Climate-related event	References
Vibrio species	Water	Warming water temperatures	Randa et al 2004; Logar-Henderson et al 2019; Weis et al 2011; Newton et al 2012; Jones et al 2013
Naegleria fowleri	Water	Warming water temperatures	Capewell et al 2015; Gharpure et al 2021
Leptospira interrogans	Water	Floods	Gaynor et al 2007; Togami et al 2012; Amilasan et al 2009; Lau et al 2010
Fusarium species	Soil	Warming air temperatures	Timmusk et al 2020; Wurster et al 2020
Cryptococcus gattii	Soil	Warming air and soil temperatures	Kidd et al 2007; CDC MMWR 2010; Rosas and Casadevall 1997; Want and Casadevall 1994; Schiave et al 2009
Various moulds	Air	Wildfire smoke	Kobziar et al 2018; Moore et al 2021; Mulliken et al 2019
Coccidioides	Air	Wildfire smoke	Kobziar and Thompson 2020; Kobziar et al 2018; Elbert et al 2007
Borrelia burgdorferi	Tick vector	Wildfire/burn events, warming air temperatures	Ogden and Lindsay 2016; Ogden et al 2014; Leighton et al 2012; Simon et al 2014; Rounsville 2021
Norovirus	Person-to-person	Human displacement	Yee et al 2007
HIV	Person-to-person	Human displacement	Nsuami et al 2009; Ekperi et al 2018

Figure 1 Conceptual diagram depicting four major infectious disease factors affected by global warming and climate change: transmission and dispersal of pathogens, pathogen habitat, pathogen evolution and distribution, and susceptibility of hosts. Generalized directions of change (increase, decrease, or multi-directional change) resulting from climate change for each factor are indicated by symbols. Examples of how each of the factors are affected by climate change related heating, drought, storms, wind, and fire are provided. Map from NOAA Climate.gov map, based on data from NOAA Centers for Environmental Information. Available from https://www.climate.gov/media/12884. The re-use of Climate.gov content should not imply NOAA endorsement of a product, service, or organization.¹²⁷

NOAA, Climate.gov. Available from https://www.climate.gov/media/12884. Accessed December 12, 2021

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