Climate change will alter the distribution and intensity of transmission of vector-borne diseases, potentially increasing the probability of disease emergence and threatening the fragile gains current control programs have made in combatting these diseases. Approximately 400,000 deaths occurred due to malaria in 2018 alone, despite intense effort to control transmission over the past two decades. Additionally, currently half of the world's population is at risk for contracting mosquito-transmitted viruses, with 390 million dengue infections per year. Further, many diseases that have recently emerged or are re-emerging globally are mosquito-borne. It has been well established that temperature has non-linear effects on vector-borne disease transmission. Thus, the effects of climate change on disease transmission will likely differ across regions. This seminar will explore the mechanisms that generate complex effects of temperature on mosquito-borne disease in the malaria and arbovirus systems and will discuss implications for transmission of these diseases in a changing climate.

Courtney Murdock (Entomology, Cornell University) will present in the
2021 Perspectives on the Climate Change Challenge Seminar Series:

• Most Mondays, Spring Semester 2021, 2:45-4:00pm
• Available as a Zoom Webinar
   

This university-wide seminar series is open to the public, and provides important views on the critical issue of climate change, drawing from many perspectives and disciplines. Experts from Cornell University and beyond present an overview of the science of climate change and climate change models, the implications for agriculture, ecosystems, and food systems, and provide important economic, ethical, and policy insights on the issue. The seminar is being organized and sponsored by the Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering and the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability.