210222 Climate, oceans, global warming, and infectious disease: The cholera paradigm

Wednesday, November 11, 2009: 10:30 AM

Rita R. Colwell, PhD, DSC , Environmental Health Sciences, University of Maryland College Park and Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD
Vectorborne diseases have long been recognized to be climate driven, but it is now clear that many infectious diseases are intricately related to weather patterns, climate, and seasonality. Epidemics of cholera, a devastating disease occurring predominantly in third world countries, has been shown to be directly correlated with environmental parameters including sea surface temperature, sea surface height, and salinity, among others. Recent studies incorporating satellite sensing technology, ground truth measurements, and microbiological analyses have provided the basis for predictive modeling of cholera epidemics in Bangladesh, India, and East Africa. These findings will be discussed as a paradigm for global infectious diseases in this century.

Learning Objectives:
Discuss the global public health issue of infectious diseases emerging in new areas of the world due to global warming, and how this issue is relevant to the Chesapeake Bay.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have done research in Chesapeake Bay since 1964 and have the largest data base on the microbiology of the Bay gathered since then. The data I will be presenting is new and publishable.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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