EPIDEMIOLOGY AND HEALTH DATA INSIGHTS
Review Article
Aug 12, 2025 354 128

Climate Change and Emerging Infectious Diseases: A Global Review of Shifting Patterns, Pathogens, and Public Health Risk

Alliah Kris-Ann Wright 1,
Cyril Ifeanyichukwu Ezugwu 2,
John Kelenna Iregbu 3,
Ezeamii Patra Chisom 4,
Adaobi Amelia Ozigbo 5,
Morayo Anne Ajobiewe 6,
Ebenezer Oluwadamilare Oyekanmi 7,
Aliyu Olanrewaju Olaniyi 8 *
1 Faculty of Graduate Nursing Alverno College Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. 2 Emergency Resident, Emergency Department, Ahad Al-Masaraha General Hospital, Ahad Al-Masaraha, Jizan Region, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.3 Department of Family Medicine, Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, Nnewi, Anambra State, Nigeria4 Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Environmental Health Sciences, Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health, Georgia Southern University, USA 5 Department of Medicine, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, College of Medicine, Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria.6 Nursing Program, Faculty of Health Science, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.7 Department of Medical Laboratory Science, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Nigeria.8 Stockport NHS foundation trust, Stepping Hill Hospital, Stockport, Manchester. United Kingdom. * Corresponding Author
Epidemiology and Health Data Insights, 1(3), 2025, ehdi009, https://doi.org/10.63946/ehdi/16744
Publication date: Aug 12, 2025
Full Text (PDF)

ABSTRACT

Climate change is changing how emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) spread over the world. The ecological conditions in which diseases, vectors, and hosts interact are changing because of rising temperatures, shifting patterns of rainfall, and increasingly frequent extreme weather events. This narrative review compiles existing research on climate-sensitive infectious illnesses and elucidates the principal mechanisms influencing observed changes. Food- and water-borne illnesses (e.g., cholera, leptospirosis) are increasingly linked to droughts, floods, and disruptions in infrastructure. Vector-borne diseases like dengue, chikungunya, malaria, and Lyme disease are spreading to highland and temperate areas. At the same time, zoonotic spillovers like Ebola, Nipah, and SARS-CoV-2 are happening more commonly in areas where the ecosystem has been altered. New worries are thermotolerant fungal infections and microorganisms that live in permafrost. This review does not offer new epidemiological modelling; instead, it puts recent Global Burden of Disease (GBD) estimates into context. These estimates reveal that the burden of infectious diseases is rising in regions that are sensitive to climate change, including sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America. Weak surveillance systems, health disparities caused by climate change, and broken data streams are some of the biggest gaps in response. Improvements in AI-based forecasting, satellite surveillance, pathogen genomes, and One Health methods provide useful tools for taking action before something happens. It is important to build public health systems that are climate-responsive, transdisciplinary, and fair in order to reduce the growing dangers posed by infectious illnesses connected to climate change.

KEYWORDS

Climate Change Emerging Infectious Diseases Vector-Borne Transmission Zoonotic Spillover One Health Framework

CITATION (Vancouver)

Wright AKA, Ezugwu CI, Iregbu JK, Chisom EP, Ozigbo AA, Ajobiewe MA, et al. Climate Change and Emerging Infectious Diseases: A Global Review of Shifting Patterns, Pathogens, and Public Health Risk. Epidemiology and Health Data Insights. 2025;1(3):ehdi009. https://doi.org/10.63946/ehdi/16744
APA
Wright, A. K.-A., Ezugwu, C. I., Iregbu, J. K., Chisom, E. P., Ozigbo, A. A., Ajobiewe, M. A., Oyekanmi, E. O., & Olaniyi, A. O. (2025). Climate Change and Emerging Infectious Diseases: A Global Review of Shifting Patterns, Pathogens, and Public Health Risk. Epidemiology and Health Data Insights, 1(3), ehdi009. https://doi.org/10.63946/ehdi/16744
Harvard
Wright, A. K.-A., Ezugwu, C. I., Iregbu, J. K., Chisom, E. P., Ozigbo, A. A., Ajobiewe, M. A., . . . Olaniyi, A. O. (2025). Climate Change and Emerging Infectious Diseases: A Global Review of Shifting Patterns, Pathogens, and Public Health Risk. Epidemiology and Health Data Insights, 1(3), ehdi009. https://doi.org/10.63946/ehdi/16744
AMA
Wright AKA, Ezugwu CI, Iregbu JK, et al. Climate Change and Emerging Infectious Diseases: A Global Review of Shifting Patterns, Pathogens, and Public Health Risk. Epidemiology and Health Data Insights. 2025;1(3), ehdi009. https://doi.org/10.63946/ehdi/16744
Chicago
Wright, Alliah Kris-Ann, Cyril Ifeanyichukwu Ezugwu, John Kelenna Iregbu, Ezeamii Patra Chisom, Adaobi Amelia Ozigbo, Morayo Anne Ajobiewe, Ebenezer Oluwadamilare Oyekanmi, and Aliyu Olanrewaju Olaniyi. "Climate Change and Emerging Infectious Diseases: A Global Review of Shifting Patterns, Pathogens, and Public Health Risk". Epidemiology and Health Data Insights 2025 1 no. 3 (2025): ehdi009. https://doi.org/10.63946/ehdi/16744
MLA
Wright, Alliah Kris-Ann et al. "Climate Change and Emerging Infectious Diseases: A Global Review of Shifting Patterns, Pathogens, and Public Health Risk". Epidemiology and Health Data Insights, vol. 1, no. 3, 2025, ehdi009. https://doi.org/10.63946/ehdi/16744

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