1. A look at how climate change is affecting infectious diseases.
A Windows to the Universe presentation to accompany the Infectious Diseases activity

2. Changing Planet: Infectious Diseases
NBC Learn Video – Infectious Diseases

3. Vector-borne diseases
Population at risk
Number of people infected
Present distribution
Likelihood of altered distribution
Malaria
Mosquito
2.4 billion
million
Tropics and subtropics
High
Schistosomiasis
Water snail
600 million
200 million
Medium
African sleeping sickness
Tsetse fly
55 million
300,000
Tropical Africa
Dengue
1.8 billion
30 million
Tropics
Yellow Fever
450 million
>5,000
Low
Vectors are animals that spread human diseases

4. Malaria Malaria affects millions of people worldwide every year.
Malaria is spread by mosquitoes, and is a problem in warm, wet climates where the mosquitoes flourish

5. Cholera www.windows2universe.org
Cholera is a disease caused by a bacterium that spreads through contaminated drinking water
When poor living conditions or disaster force people to drink contaminated water, cholera can quickly become epidemic

6. Dengue
Dengue (also known as breakbone fever) is a viral disease spread by mosquitoes
Like malaria, it is spreading because many environments are getting warmer and wetter and allowing mosquito populations to increase

7. Dengue is projected to spread with global warming

8. Schistosomiasis
Schistosomiasis is a disease spread by parasitic worms.
It is spread by snails, and is a problem in wet tropical climates where the snails are abundant and water is often contaminated with human waste.