• Question: Why do different diseases thrive better in different climates?

    Asked by anon-255175 on 20 May 2020.
    • Photo: Emma Daniels

      Emma Daniels answered on 20 May 2020: last edited 20 May 2020 11:44 am

      Great question! I’m not an expert in this area, but often diseases are carried and spread by ‘hosts’. For example, mosquitoes act as a host for malaria, and can infect humans through their bite. There are many different hosts for different diseases, and each host have adapted to survive in different climates. Increased temperatures, rainfall, and humidity help mosquitoes thrive, and so malaria might be more prominent in hot, wet climates. Whereas other hosts might prefer dry conditions. However, the relationship between climate and the spread of disease is very complicated. Many other factors such as population, wealth, and development can also affect the spread of disease.

    • Photo: Alex Holmes

      Alex Holmes answered on 20 May 2020:

      Hi! just like Emma says, sometimes the way the disease passes between people is affected by the environment. Especially mosquitos, we’re actually starting to worry that if global warming carries on the mosquitos that carry malaria might be found as far north as Sweden in a couple years!! There’s also a type of eye-seeking fly that lives in Africa and can carry an eye disease called trachoma between people.
      Also, sometimes you hear that diseases disappear when it gets hot in the summer or if it freezes over winter. There’s some research showing that this is actually due to people changing their behaviour or different behaviours in different climates, for example if it’s super cold you don’t really want to go outside but instead stay in and watch tv, so it reduces your chance of coming in contact with other people that have a disease.
      It’s an interesting example of correlation rather than causation, where two things look linked but there are actually other factors influencing what’s happening – eg it’s not the weather affecting the disease itself but affecting the bugs or behaviour. Here are some more examples if you’re interested https://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations

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