the-BA : BA Press Release - 4 September 2006 (Hunter)

The world’s changing climate and the associated increase in severe weather events such as flooding, drought and storm damage will lead to wars over water, mass movements of people and global changes in the incidence of infectious diseases within a century, says Paul Hunter, Professor of Health Protection at the University of East Anglia.

“Although the direct threat from climate-related infectious diseases in the UK is likely to be limited to food and waterborne disease,” says Professor Hunter, “mass migration of peoples displaced from developing nations that are more severely affected, is likely to have a far greater impact: causing a rise in cases of diseases like tuberculosis and HIV.”

Professor Hunter will make his comments on Tuesday as part of ‘Environmental change and the increasing threat of infectious diseases’, an event at the BA Festival of Science in Norwich. The Festival is taking place at the University of East Anglia from 2-9 September and will bring together over 300 of the UK’s top scientists and engineers to discuss the latest scientific developments with the public.

Professor Hunter suggests that the most serious impacts of climate change on infectious disease will be felt in the poorer countries of the world, but may also influence the ecology and distribution of species that are host to disease. For instance, while increases in summertime temperatures and the frequency of hot summers will boost bacterial growth rates in food and may cause a noticeable rise in cases of food poisoning, decreasing rainfall will reduce the availability of water and may lead to an increased reliance on poorer quality water sources and waste water. In developing nations without the appropriate water treatment technology this will lead to increasing outbreaks of diseases associated with contaminated water supplies (e.g. cholera, Hepatitis A and malaria) in addition to famine, large-scale displacement of people and wars over access to water before the end of the century.

Of more concern to developed nations, such as the UK, is the fact that more frequent flooding and extreme rainfall increases the likelihood of waterborne disease outbreaks. Particularly notable are reports of wound infections in Germany caused by Vibrio vulnificus (a marine water organism that only grows in warm water and was previously most problematic in areas bordering the Gulf of Mexico) and cryptosporidium and E. coli O157:H7 outbreaks in the UK and Canada as a result of heavy rainfall and associated flooding.

ENDS

For further information on the BA Festival of Science, visit www.the-ba.net/festivalofscience.

This year’s Festival is supported by the University of East Anglia, the East of England Development Agency and Microsoft Research. The Press Centre is sponsored by AstraZeneca.

For further information please contact:

Lisa Hendry, Press Assistant, the BA
Tel: +44 (0)20 7019 4946
Email: lisa.hendry@the-ba.net

Note for editors

1. The BA (British Association for the Advancement of Science) is the UK's nationwide, open membership organisation that exists to advance the public understanding, accessibility and accountability of the sciences and engineering. Established in 1831, the BA organises major initiatives across the UK, including the annual BA Festival of Science, National Science Week, programmes of regional and local events, and an extensive programme for young people in schools and colleges. For more information about the BA, please visit www.the-ba.net.

2. Speakers have been asked to submit press papers for their talks, which include a summary of the talk and what is newsworthy about their research. Press papers will be available from mid-August at www.the-ba.net/presspapers.

3. To register for access to the press papers or to the Press Centre at the 2006 BA Festival of Science, visit www.the-ba.net/pressregister.

4. The BA Festival of Science 2006 is being hosted in Norwich by the University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park and Norwich City Council.

5. The University of East Anglia (UEA) is an internationally renowned, research-led University. Over 13,000 students from more than 100 countries and around 2500 staff enjoy its architecturally distinguished campus on the edge of the city of Norwich. UEA is known for its pioneering and collaborative approach to research, bringing together academics from different disciplines to create innovative research groups. The latest Research Assessment Exercise (2001) confirmed the breadth and depth of UEA's research excellence through the achievement of the top 5* or 5 ratings in eleven subject areas, with staff inclusion rates in the top 10% across the board.

6. The East of England Development Agency (EEDA) is the driving force behind sustainable economic regeneration in the East of England: Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. Its vision is to create a leading economy, founded on a world class knowledge base, creativity and enterprise to improve the quality of life for all who live and work here. EEDA aims to do this by: (1) Setting and shaping the direction of economic development in the region, (2) Persuading and influencing others to bring resources together, (3) Investing in imaginative projects that challenge the norm. For further information visit www.eeda.org.uk.

7. Founded in 1991, Microsoft Research is dedicated to conducting both basic and applied research in computer science and software engineering. Its goals are to enhance the user experience on computing devices, reduce the cost of writing and maintaining software, and invent novel computing technologies. Researchers focus on more than 55 areas of computing and collaborate with leading academic, government and industry researchers to advance the state of the art in such areas as graphics, speech recognition, user-interface research, natural language processing, programming tools and methodologies, operating systems and networking, and the mathematical sciences. Microsoft Research employs more than 700 people in five labs located in Redmond, Wash.; Silicon Valley, Calif.; Cambridge, England; Beijing, China; and Bangalore, India. Microsoft Research collaborates openly with colleges and universities worldwide to enhance the teaching and learning experience, inspire technological innovation, and broadly advance the field of computer science. More information can be found at www.research.microsoft.com.

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