The influence of vector‐borne disease on human history: socio‐ecological mechanisms

Ecology Letters · 2021 · 62 citations

• Ecology
• Biology
• Geography

Vector-borne diseases (VBDs) are embedded within complex socio-ecological systems. While research has traditionally focused on the direct effects of VBDs on human morbidity and mortality, it is increasingly clear that their impacts are much more pervasive. VBDs are dynamically linked to feedbacks between environmental conditions, vector ecology, disease burden, and societal responses that drive transmission. As a result, VBDs have had profound influence on human history. Mechanisms include: (1) killing or debilitating large numbers of people, with demographic and population-level impacts; (2) differentially affecting populations based on prior history of disease exposure, immunity, and resistance; (3) being weaponised to promote or justify hierarchies of power, colonialism, racism, classism and sexism; (4) catalysing changes in ideas, institutions, infrastructure, technologies and social practices in efforts to control disease outbreaks; and (5) changing human relationships with the land and environment. We use historical and archaeological evidence interpreted through an ecological lens to illustrate how VBDs have shaped society and culture, focusing on case studies from four pertinent VBDs: plague, malaria, yellow fever and trypanosomiasis. By comparing across diseases, time periods and geographies, we highlight the enormous scope and variety of mechanisms by which VBDs have influenced human history.

How vector-borne disease shaped the course of human history

Authorea (Authorea) · 2020 · 1 citations

• Geography
• Development economics
• Ecology

The extent to which vector-borne diseases (VBDs) have shaped human history remains under-recognized, even in the disease ecology community, despite several well-known examples. Although they represent a significant threat to global human health, accounting for more than one billion cases and one million deaths annually, VBDs have coexisted with humans since the advent of civilization and have migrated with humans around the world. Here, we synthesize historical, anthropological, and archaeological evidence and examine it through an ecological lens to illustrate how four major VBDs—plague, malaria, yellow fever, and trypanosomiasis—have shaped the course of human history through three main pathways: (1) outcomes of colonialism, imperialism, war, and conflict; (2) human interactions with the environment; and (3) intrasocietal human interactions. For example, malaria tipped the American Revolution toward the Continental Army; plague promoted reforestation in Europe; yellow fever entrenched African slavery in colonies in the Americas; trypanosomiasis impeded large settlements and central governments in pre-colonial sub-Saharan Africa. By drawing comparisons across diseases, time periods, and geographic locations, we show how VBDs have historically affected human populations, from the age of early Homo sapiens to the modern context, and how they continue to impact the world.