Environment and human health :
landscape, land cover, land use and vector-borne diseases
Sophie O. Vanwambeke
Over the past decades, numerous infectious diseases have emerged and re-emerged, a number of which are vector-borne diseases. The increasing incidence of these diseases has been attributed to a complex constellation of factors, but socio-economic and environmental are among the most important. The emergence of vector-borne diseases has been documented through wide areas of the globe: tropical regions continue to suffer from old scourges such as malaria, but also face increasing threats from the mosquito-borne dengue. Temperate areas are also dealing with this issue, e.g. Europe, where tick-borne diseases persist and have increased as a public health problem. The main focus of the research is the quantitative investigation of links between the environment and human health. The approach emphasizes the integration of landscape in vector-borne diseases transmission, as a vector habitat, and as the place of human activities. Examples will include mosquito-borne diseases in Thailand and tick-borne diseases in continental Europe.
Sophie O. Vanwambeke
Assistant professor
Department of Geography
University of Louvain (UCL), Belgium
Visiting researcher in Asia-Pacific Institute of Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases, John A. Burns School of Medicine, UH
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