Climate change is reshaping infectious diseases threats. A Friday, Oct. 23, session at 3:15 p.m. ET will explore some of these changes and what clinicians can do in response.
“Microbe Drift: How Climate Change Shapes Microbial Adaptation and ID Practice” will bring together experts to discuss the changing epidemiology of infectious diseases, health care’s environmental impact and opportunities for action.
Maryrose Laguio-Vila, MD, an ID physician at Rochester Regional Health in New York, and Aslam Khan, DO, clinical assistant professor of pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, California, will moderate the session.
The session reflects growing interest within the ID community in understanding both the effects of climate change and the profession’s responsibility to address them. “Over the past few years, there’s just been a growing interest from the ID community in ‘How can we do something from our perspective?’” Dr. Khan said.
That interest helped shape a symposium designed to move beyond only describing climate-related challenges.
“In all of these conferences, we do the ‘This is the problem’ and then you end it,” Dr. Khan said. “The goal was to come up with some actionable solutions or what are things people are doing [that] people can model.”
The session’s first presentation, “Heat, Humidity, Host: How Climate Change Rewrites ID Risk,” will be delivered by Matthew C. Phillips, MD, PhD, associate physician at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Dr. Phillips will examine how changing environmental conditions are influencing the distribution and transmission of infectious diseases.
“We know [with] mosquito-borne illnesses, the vectors are shifting,” Dr. Khan said.
Attendees will learn how rising temperatures, changing humidity patterns and expanding vector habitats are affecting arboviruses, West Nile virus and tick-borne diseases. The presentation will also examine climate-related influences on fungal pathogens, including Histoplasma, Aspergillus, Coccidioides, Cryptococcus and Mucorales, as well as emerging impacts on bacterial and parasitic diseases.
Naomi Hauser, MD, MPH, MAS, associate professor at the University of California, Davis, will explore “Health Care’s Contribution to Climate Change.” Her talk will focus on the environmental footprint of the health care sector and opportunities for more sustainable approaches in ID practice.
Dr. Hauser will explore how sustainability principles can be incorporated into infection prevention and antimicrobial stewardship programs while maintaining high-quality patient care.
Regina C. LaRocque, MD, MPH, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, will discuss the effects of climate change on the ID workforce and opportunities for advocacy at the local, institutional and policy levels.
Dr. Khan said he hopes attendees leave with a broader understanding of the connections between daily clinical practice and environmental change.
The discussion is particularly timely as ID clinicians increasingly encounter climate-related health challenges in their own communities.
“We’re thinking about what are we doing locally that is contributing to this problem,” Dr. Khan said.
By pairing scientific updates with practical examples, the symposium aims to provide attendees with a clearer understanding of climate-related ID challenges and potential approaches to sustainability and advocacy.