Environnement, Risques & Santé
MENUPathogens and environmental changes: Present and future risks Volume 3, issue 3, Mai-Juin 2004
- Key words: disease outbreaks, disease vectors, disease reservoirs, environmental microbiology, risk factors, zoonoses.
- Page(s) : 165-72
- Published in: 2004
Worldwide concern with infectious diseases encompasses those that are more or less new (for example, SARS, AIDS, legionnaire’s disease) as well as older diseases that persist stably or fluctuate, such as tuberculosis, bubonic plague, whooping cough, rabies, cholera, and plant and animal diseases. These pathogens ‐‐ bacteria, viruses, fungi, algae, parasites ‐‐ are intimately connected with the environment, which can serve as source or vector for them. The environment, as modified by humans, affects their life cycle, growth, and survival and is in turn influenced by them. These various relations between pathogens and the environment, together with the factors involved in the emergence and re‐emergence of infectious diseases, are the topic of this review, which concludes by discussing perspectives for further research.