Climate Change and Tropical Medicine: The Issue of Our Day - ASTMH

DESCRIPTION: Overwhelming evidence collected in recent decades shows that the Earth’s climate is warming as a result of human activity. The effects on our natural ecosystems are documented with increasing clarity and precision by natural scientists. Combined with the impacts of population growth an  anthropogenic habitat perturbation, the results are potentially catastrophic for life on earth, including humans. While the natural science data (e.g. warming of the earth) are irrefutable, less clear are the immediate and long-term impacts on human health. This symposium will explore both the direct (e.g. heat-stroke, injury due to severe weather events) and indirect (e.g. ecological changes in abundance and distribution of arthropod vectors and vertebrate reservoirs, potentially altering probability of pathogen transmission) risks climate change and habitat perturbation pose to human health, and what steps must be taken to mitigate these risks.