Impact of Climate Change on Tick-Borne Viral Diseases
摘要
Climate change is affecting the prevalence of ticks and tick-borne diseases (TBDs) around the globe through changes in temperature patterns, precipitation values, and ecosystem variables. This is helping to expand the habitats of vectors, especially ticks. These changing scenarios need robust adaptive strategies that involve biologists, public health specialists, environmental specialists, and economists to design a framework for research initiatives. This chapter describes the impact of climate change on tick-borne viral diseases (TBVDs). It emphasizes the importance of enhanced surveillance systems, enhancing public education regarding ticks and tick-borne viruses, and taking interdisciplinary initiatives to control these infections. It reviews the TBVDs, their impact, how the geographical pattern of tick prevalence changes with climate change, surveillance systems available, what can be improved, and current ways to control ticks. It also points out some research areas which would help design a framework to overcome this issue, like enhancement needed in ecological modelling, climate resilient vector control methods, vaccine development, and enhancing the diagnostic field to diagnose the TBVDs at their initial stage. A central point of this review is to focus on interdisciplinary collaboration among the biologists, ecologists, economists, policy makers, veterinarians, and the public health sector for effective prevention and control of TBVDs.