Using Human Disease Outbreaks as a Guide to Multilevel Ecosystem Interventions

Abstract

Human health often depends on environmental variables and is generally subject to widespread and comprehensive surveillance. Compared with other available measures of ecosystem health, human disease incidence may be one of the most useful and practical bioindicators for the often elusive gauge of ecologic well-being. We argue that many subtle ecosystem disruptions are often identified only as a result of detailed epidemiologic investigations after an anomalous increase in human disease incidence detected by routine surveillance mechanisms. Incidence rates for vector-mediated diseases (e.g., arboviral illnesses) and direct zoonoses (e.g., hantaviruses) are particularly appropriate as bioindicators to identify underlying ecosystem disturbances. Outbreak data not only have the potential to act as a pivotal warning system for ecosystem disruption, but may also be used to identify interventions for the preservation of ecologic health. With this approach, appropriate ecologically based strategies for remediation can be introduced at an earlier stage than would be possible based solely on environmental monitoring, thereby reducing the level of “ecosystem distress” as well as resultant disease burden in humans. This concept is discussed using local, regional, and global examples, thereby introducing the concept of multilevel ecosystem interventions.

Wetlands as Settings for Human Health: Incorporating Ecosystem Services and Health Impact Assessment into Water Resource Management

“…Biodiversity loss can increase disease transmission for important diseases associated with wetlands, such as malaria, West Nile virus, and schistosomiasis (Keesing et al 2010 and see the references cited therein). The incidence rates of vector-mediated diseases and direct zoonoses have been proposed as a bioindicator for underlying disturbances to ecosystems (e.g., Cook et al 2004) and, notionally, therefore, its health. In a broader sense, aspects of animal and human health can become an important indicator for the health of an ecosystem, and vice versa, provided that there are clear causal links between the two.…”

Primates and the Ecology of their Infectious Diseases: How will Anthropogenic Change Affect Host-Parasite Interactions?

“…Habitat disturbance associated with the creation of the Panama Canal, for example, is thought to have catalyzed the yellow fever outbreak that occurred at that time in howler monkeys. 73 The use of human crops and rubbish has been shown to alter gastrointestinal parasite communities in primates. 66,74 Changes at the Multiregional Scale: Climate Change…”

Ciguatera poisoning in Rarotonga, southern Cook Islands

“…First, just as human-disease outbreaks are bio-indicators of ecosystem health (Spiegel and Yassi, 1997;Cook et al, 2004), ciguatera-poisoning outbreaks have been linked to degraded coral-reef ecosystems. The 'new surface hypothesis' (Randall, 1958) suggests that disturbances (i.e., cyclones, tsunamis, coral bleaching, Acanthaster planci outbreaks, dredging, boat channel construction, boat anchorage, and shipwrecks) provide freshly denuded surfaces for macroalgae to serve as substrate for toxic dinoflagellates (Cooper, 1964;Banner, 1976;Bagnis et al, 1988;Kohler and Kohler, 1992;Bagnis, 1994;Chinain et al, 1999).…”