Effect of Flooding on the Occurrence of Infectious Disease

Abstract

Changes in climate may affect the incidence of infectious diseases in human and nonhuman animals because they decrease shelter or food supplies forcing populations into closer proximity and because they may decrease host resistance to pathogens. Environmental phenomena, such as floods, may force changes in grazing or foraging behavior that bring populations of susceptible animals into contact with infectious agents that they may have otherwise avoided. Wet and humid conditions associated with floods also provide opportunities for insect vectors of infectious diseases to increase in number and transmit infection more frequently. These underlying principles of infectious disease epidemiology a..