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Environmental & Social Ecology of Human Infectious Diseases (ESEI)

Programme background

A joint initiative between the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Medical Research Council (MRC), Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC), and Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), launched under the umbrella of the Living with Environmental Change (LWEC) partnership.

Our world is changing at an unprecedented rate resulting in changing patterns of infectious diseases. As recently exemplified by H1N1(Mex), the emergence of a pandemic strain of influenza or other virulent pathogen remains an ongoing threat to human health.

As identified by the Foresight Detection & Identification of Infectious Diseases (DIID) Project, we need to respond to the threat from new and emerging pathogens so that we are better able to anticipate, prepare for, and control future outbreaks.

This ground-breaking initiative aims to establish novel inter-disciplinary approaches to studying the ecology of infectious diseases. NERC, MRC, ESRC and BBSRC recognise that important new insights into the drivers and control of infectious diseases in human populations can only be achieved by taking a holistic systems approach which takes into account the ways in which the natural and social environments affect the emergence (emergence, re-emergence, and development of drug resistance) and spread of infectious disease. This new paradigm will enable us to respond proactively to the threat from novel pathogens and emerging infections.

Since most emerging infections are zoonotic, we are particularly keen to better understand the animal reservoir as a source of infectious diseases and how animal pathogens spill-over into human populations and spread through communities in the UK or other parts of the world.