Society will not keep up with pace of change, warns Professor Brooks

Infectious diseases, such as Ebola and West Nile virus, will rapidly spread to new areas as a result of global warming.

This is according to zoologist, Professor Daniel Brooks, who warns humans can expect to face new illnesses as climate change brings crops, livestock, and humans into contact with pathogens.

Professor Brooks says it will be 'the death of a thousand cuts' with society unable to keep up with the speed of disease as it spreads around the world.

Scroll down for video

Infectious diseases, such as Ebola (pictured) and West Nile virus, will rapidly spread to new areas as a result of global warming.This is according to zoologist, Professor Daniel Brooks, who warns humans can expect to face new illnesses as climate change brings crops, livestock, and humans into contact with pathogens

'It's not that there's going to be one "Andromeda Strain" that will wipe everybody out on the planet,' Professor Brooks said, referring to the 1971 science fiction film about a deadly pathogen.

'There are going to be a lot of localised outbreaks that put a lot of pressure on our medical and veterinary health systems.'

In his research, Professor Brooks has focused primarily on parasites in the tropics, while his colleague, Professor Eric Hoberg, has worked in Arctic regions.

Each has observed the arrival of species that hadn't previously lived in that area and the departure of others, said Professor Brooks, who is affiliated with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Changes in habitat from global warming could mean animals are exposed to new parasites and pathogens. In 1990, the UN's climate panel predicted with ‘substantial confidence’ that the world would warm at twice the rate that has been observed since. Pictured are two projected outcomes of global warming from 2081-2100

'Over the last 30 years, the places we've been working have been heavily impacted by climate change,' he added.

'Though I was in the tropics and he was in the Arctic, we could see something was happening.'

Changes in habitat from global warming could mean animals are exposed to new parasites and pathogens.

For example, some lungworms in recent years have moved northward and shifted hosts from caribou to muskoxen in the Canadian Arctic.

But for more than 100 years, scientists have assumed parasites don't quickly jump from one species to another because of the way parasites and hosts co-evolve.

Professor Brooks calls it the 'parasite paradox.' Over time, hosts and pathogens become more tightly adapted to one another.

According to previous theories, this should make emerging diseases rare, because they have to wait for the right random mutation to occur.

But it turns out such jumps happen more quickly than anticipated. Even pathogens that are highly adapted to one host are able to shift to new ones under the right circumstances.

WILL CLIMATE CHANGE CAUSE A RISE IN DENGUE FEVER? Dengue is a viral infection spread by mosquitoes. It thrives in warm and humid conditions - which could one day include include large areas in Europe European holiday destinations could become hotspots for the nasty viral illness thanks to climate change, experts have warned. The Po Valley in Italy, the Spanish Mediterranean and southern Spain are the areas at most risk, according to research last year by the University of East Anglia (UEA). Dengue is a viral infection spread by mosquitoes. Symptoms include a severe flu-like illness, fever, headache, muscle ache, rash, nausea and vomiting. The new study was based on data collected in Mexico, where dengue is a common problem. Researchers looked at the occurrence of the viral illness and climate variables such as temperature, humidity and rainfall, along with other factors. They then combined their findings with information about EU countries, to model which areas are most likely to be at risk, according to the study, published in the journal BMC Public Health. 'Our study has shown that the risk of dengue fever is likely to increase in Europe under climate change,' said lead researcher Professor Paul Hunter. 'Almost all of the excess risk will fall on the coastal areas of the Mediterranean and Adriatic seas and the North Eastern part of Italy, particularly the Po Valley.' Advertisement

Professor Brooks is calling for a 'fundamental conceptual shift' recognising that parasites and pathogens retain genetic capabilities that allow them to quickly shift to new hosts.

'Though a parasite might have a very specialised relationship with one particular host in one particular place, there are other hosts that may be as susceptible,' Professor Brooks said.

In fact, the new hosts are more susceptible to infection and get sicker from it, he said, because they haven't yet developed resistance.

Though resistance can evolve fairly rapidly, this only changes the emergent pathogen from an acute disease problem to a chronic problem, Brooks said.

'West Nile Virus is a good example of this phenomenon - no longer an acute disease problem for humans or wildlife in North America, it nonetheless is here to stay,' he said.

In addition to treating human cases of an emerging disease and developing a vaccine for it, he said, scientists can learn which non-human species carry the virus.

'We have to admit we're not winning the war against emerging diseases,' Professor Brooks said.