Infectious Disease Sensitivity to Climate and Other Driver-Pressure Changes: Research Effort and Gaps for Lyme Disease and Cryptosporidiosis

Climate sensitivity of infectious diseases is discussed in many studies. A quantitative basis for distinguishing and predicting the disease impacts of climate and other environmental and anthropogenic driver-pressure changes, however, is often lacking. To assess research effort and identify possible key gaps that can guide further research, we here apply a scoping review approach to two widespread infectious diseases: Lyme disease (LD) as a vector-borne and cryptosporidiosis as a water-borne disease. Based on the emerging publication data, we further structure and quantitatively assess the driver-pressure foci and interlinkages considered in the published research so far. This shows important research gaps for the roles of rarely investigated water-related and socioeconomic factors for LD, and land-related factors for cryptosporidiosis. For both diseases, the interactions of host and parasite communities with climate and other driver-pressure factors are understudied, as are also important world regions relative to the disease geographies; in particular, Asia and Africa emerge as main geographic gaps for LD and cryptosporidiosis research, respectively. The scoping approach developed and gaps identified in this study should be useful for further assessment and guidance of research on infectious disease sensitivity to climate and other environmental and anthropogenic changes around the world.

Automated summary

The climate sensitivity of infectious diseases is widely discussed, but there is a lack of quantitative basis for distinguishing and predicting their disease impacts. This study applies a scoping review approach to Lyme disease and cryptosporidiosis to assess research effort and identify key gaps. The research reveals important gaps in the roles of water-related and socioeconomic factors for Lyme disease, and land-related factors for cryptosporidiosis. Additionally, the interactions between host and parasite communities with climate and other driver-pressure factors are understudied, and there is a lack of research in Asia and Africa for Lyme disease and cryptosporidiosis, respectively.