Global biogeography of human infectious diseases
File(s)
Published version
Accepted version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The distributions of most infectious agents causing disease in humans are poorly resolved or unknown. However, poorly known and unknown agents contribute to the global burden of disease and will underlie many future disease risks. Existing patterns of infectious disease co-occurrence could thus play a critical role in resolving or anticipating current and future disease threats. We analyzed the global occurrence patterns of 187 human infectious diseases across 225 countries and seven epidemiological classes (human-specific, zoonotic, vector-borne, non–vector-borne, bacterial, viral, and parasitic) to show that human infectious diseases exhibit distinct spatial grouping patterns at a global scale. We demonstrate, using outbreaks of Ebola virus as a test case, that this spatial structuring provides an untapped source of prior information that could be used to tighten the focus of a range of health-related research and management activities at early stages or in data-poor settings, including disease surveillance, outbreak responses, or optimizing pathogen discovery. In examining the correlates of these spatial patterns, among a range of geographic, epidemiological, environmental, and social factors, mammalian biodiversity was the strongest predictor of infectious disease co-occurrence overall and for six of the seven disease classes examined, giving rise to a striking congruence between global pathogeographic and “Wallacean” zoogeographic patterns. This clear biogeographic signal suggests that infectious disease assemblages remain fundamentally constrained in their distributions by ecological barriers to dispersal or establishment, despite the homogenizing forces of globalization. Pathogeography thus provides an overarching context in which other factors promoting infectious disease emergence and spread are set.
Date Issued
2015-09-28
Date Acceptance
2015-08-26
Citation
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2015, 112 (41), pp.12746-12751
ISSN
1091-6490
Publisher
National Academy of Sciences
Start Page
12746
End Page
12751
Journal / Book Title
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume
112
Issue
41
Copyright Statement
Freely available online through the PNAS open access option.
Subjects
infectious disease
biogeography
pathogeography
globalization
distribution
Publication Status
Published