Laboratory of Molecular Microbiology & Immunology, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of West Attica, 12243 Athens, Greece.
Laboratory of Anatomy-Pathological Anatomy & Physiology Nutrition, Department of Biomedical Sciences, School of Health and Care Sciences, University of West Attica, 12243 Athens, Greece.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 May 27;19(11):6516. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19116516.
Climate change has influenced the transmission of a wide range of vector-borne diseases in Europe, which is a pressing public health challenge for the coming decades. Numerous theories have been developed in order to explain how tick-borne diseases are associated with climate change. These theories include higher proliferation rates, extended transmission season, changes in ecological balances, and climate-related migration of vectors, reservoir hosts, or human populations. Changes of the epidemiological pattern have potentially catastrophic consequences, resulting in increasing prevalence of tick-borne diseases. Thus, investigation of the relationship between climate change and tick-borne diseases is critical. In this regard, climate models that predict the ticks' geographical distribution changes can be used as a predicting tool. The aim of this review is to provide the current evidence regarding the contribution of the climatic changes to Lyme borreliosis (LB) disease and tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) and to present how computational models will advance our understanding of the relationship between climate change and tick-borne diseases in Europe.
气候变化影响了欧洲多种媒介传播疾病的传播,这是未来几十年紧迫的公共卫生挑战。为了解释蜱传疾病与气候变化的关系,已经提出了许多理论。这些理论包括更高的繁殖率、传播季节的延长、生态平衡的变化以及与气候相关的媒介、储存宿主或人口的迁移。流行病学模式的变化可能带来灾难性的后果,导致蜱传疾病的流行率增加。因此,调查气候变化与蜱传疾病之间的关系至关重要。在这方面,可以使用预测蜱地理分布变化的气候模型作为预测工具。本综述的目的是提供有关气候变化对莱姆病(LB)和蜱传脑炎(TBE)的贡献的现有证据,并介绍计算模型将如何增进我们对欧洲气候变化与蜱传疾病之间关系的理解。