This past Monday, an article was published in The Washington Post on the controversial correlation between climate change and tropical diseases. Concern was raised in 2000 by an article written by Harvard biologist Paul R. Epstein, which drew a lot of interest from the scientific community. The article sparked more than 4,000 studies on the changing climate and its effect on disease. Scientists and health professionals were also compelled by a map published in the Scientific American that predicted by 2020 a malaria outbreak could occur on the east coast of the United States and in Europe. This scenario of tropical disease presenting themselves may not be too far-fetched for the US. Last summer, dengue appeared in the Florida Keys, and in the past similar infectious diseases broke out in warmer areas of the States.

Tropical diseases thrive in warm weather. As our climate increasingly becomes warmer, organisms will reproduce at a faster rate, resulting in a greater number of disease-carrying insects. Other theories hypothesize  that climate change could actually reduce disease – some areas may become too hot for insects and vectors to survive, thereby reducing the outbreak of disease.

Click here to read the article in its entirety.