<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2716.2200" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT color=#000080><FONT color=#000000><STRONG><FONT size=5>Disease threat
cited in global warming</FONT></STRONG> </FONT></DIV>
<DIV>
<P><FONT size=+1>Report predicts virulence and range will grow</FONT>
<P><FONT size=-1><B>By Beth Daley, Globe Staff, 6/21/2002</B> </FONT>
<P><A
href="http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/172/nation/Disease_threat_cited_in_global_warming+.shtml">http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/172/nation/Disease_threat_cited_in_global_warming+.shtml</A>
<P><WIRE_BODY>Warming temperatures around the world are increasing the
geographical range and virulence of diseases, a trend that could mean more
devastating epidemics in humans, animals, and plants, according to a report
published in the magazine Science yesterday.
<P>Already, the dengue virus in Latin America and Rift Valley fever in the
Middle East, which can cause people to vomit blood, have expanded their deadly
range. Meanwhile, an oyster disease has gained a foothold in Maine waters, the
report said.
<P>Researchers have long accepted that global warming will affect a wide range
of organisms, but they are only now beginning to predict what those will be.
While climate change scientists have studied a handful of human diseases,
yesterday's report was the first to study dozens of diseases in both humans and
nonhumans.
<P>''We are seeing lots of anecdotes and they are beginning to tell a story,''
said Andrew P. Dobson, professor at Princeton University's department of ecology
and evolutionary biology and one of the authors. ''It's a much more scary threat
than bioterrorism.''
<P>The report comes at a crucial time. Earlier this month, the Bush
administration concluded that manmade sources of heat-trapping, or greenhouse,
gases were responsible for global warming. Yesterday's report adds to the
growing evidence that nearly every part of the natural world could suffer in
some way from the long-term warming trend.
<P>The report notes that many regions, including New England, could be losing
one of their best defenses against disease: cold weather. Every fall, mosquitoes
that may be carrying the deadly West Nile virus, for example, are killed off
before they multiply and spread the disease too widely. But as global warming
heats up the Earth, even by minute degrees, disease-carrying organisms may
regenerate faster or go into new areas where populations may have little or no
natural resistance.
<P>-- continued</P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>