Video Three members of Congress joined forces with a Lyme disease advocacy group to host a forum to discuss the fight against tick-borne diseases. As a panelist, Cary's Rick Ostfeld shared his research and insights.
Man-induced changes to the natural environment may be the perfect storm for the spread of diseases such as histoplasmosis, hantavirus, Lyme and typhus.
Huffington Post follows-up on disease ecologist Rick Ostfeld's warning of increased health risks related to urban rats being displaced by Hurricane Sandy.
Different species of tick hosts tend to have different probabilities of transmitting an infection to a feeding tick. In eastern and central North America, the host most likely to transmit an infection to a feeding tick is the white-footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus), which infects between 40% and 90% of feeding larvae.
West Nile virus emerged in the western hemisphere during the summer of 1999, reawakening public awareness to the potential severity of vector –borne pathogens.
Population stressors such as habitat loss, weather events, and disease are most often investigated independently but populations exist in a complex reality and most species declines can be attributed to a network of associated causes.
Biodiversity can protect human health by reducing the probability of human exposure to disease agents transmitted from wildlife. Human-induced environmental changes, such as habitat fragmentation, can inadvertently increase disease risk by reducing both predators and biodiversity.
