Impact of global warming on the spread of infectious diseases

After years of scientific and public discussion concerning a temperature rise resultant from human activity and the on-going industrialisation, the global warming has become an evident fact. The effect of the temperature rise and the climate change will surely alter epidemiological aspects of some infectious diseases. In this review, we try to analyse various data concerning the impact of global warming on the spread of infectious diseases caused by bacterial, viral and protozoan agents. Certainly, it is extremely important for veterinarians and public health that some diseases have altered in their epidemiological aspects and distribution. Some new diseases may emerge; others, previously endemic, may migrate to new geographical regions. The review is focused on pathogens important to both humans and livestock, such as malaria, dengue, bluetongue, West Nile virus, tick-born diseases and infectious diarrhoeas. There are still few scientific papers on the subject, because of numerous difficulties involved in conducting such studies, such as their long time of duration, multiple factors involved in such predictions, and complicated mathematical models containing climate and epidemiological data.