Climate change affects disease spread worldwide

Human risk of disease from carriers that might respond to higher temperatures is complicated by other factors. Some like it hot: more protozoans can infect the monarch butterfly as climates become milder; nematode parasites get two chances to infect caribou and reindeer as a result of Arctic warming; and coral pathogens become more active with warmer seas. Humans can and should learn from all these interactions, write Sonia Altizer, of the University of Georgia in the US, and her colleagues. She argues in Science that climate change is affecting the spread of disease worldwide, according to Climate News Network. Human risk of disease from carriers that might respond to higher temperatures is complicated by other factors: the wealth of a nation, its health system and its ability to respond. So it becomes harder to see the role of climate in many outcomes. But the natural world offers some clearer lessons. “In many cases, we...