Climate change is one of the greatest threats to human health in the 21st century. Climate directly impacts health through climatic extremes, air quality, sea‐level rise, and multifaceted influences on food production systems and water resources. Climate also affects infectious diseases, which have played a significant role in human history, impacting the rise and fall of civilizations and facilitating the conquest of new territories. Our review highlights significant regional changes in vector and pathogen distribution reported in temperate, peri‐Arctic, Arctic, and tropical highland regions during recent decades, changes that have been anticipated by scientists worldwide. Further future changes are likely if we fail to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Many key factors affect the spread and severity of human diseases, including mobility of people, animals, and goods; control measures in place; availability of effective drugs; quality of public health services; human behavior; and political stability and conflicts. With drug and insecticide resistance on the rise, significant funding and research efforts must to be maintained to continue the battle against existing and emerging diseases, particularly those that are vector borne.

Significance: This study is the first multimalaria model intercomparison exercise. This is carried out to estimate the impact of future climate change and population scenarios on malaria transmission at global scale and to provide recommendations for the future. Our results indicate that future climate might become more suitable for malaria transmission in the tropical highland regions. However, other important socioeconomic factors such as land use change, population growth and urbanization, migration changes, and economic development will have to be accounted for in further details for future risk assessments.

The Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) is an invasive species that has the potential to transmit infectious diseases such as dengue and chikungunya fever. Using high-resolution observations and regional climate model scenarios for the future, we investigated the suitability of Europe for A. albopictus using both recent climate and future climate conditions. The results show that southern France, northern Italy, the northern coast of Spain, the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea and western Turkey were climatically suitable areas for the establishment of the mosquito during the 1960–1980s. Over the last two decades, climate conditions have become more suitable for the mosquito over central northwestern Europe (Benelux, western Germany) and the Balkans, while they have become less suitable over southern Spain. Similar trends are likely in the future, with an increased risk simulated over northern Europe and slightly decreased risk over southern Europe. These distribution shifts are related to wetter and warmer conditions favouring the overwintering of A. albopictus in the north, and drier and warmer summers that might limit its southward expansion.

Significance: This study quantifies the impact of climate variability on Zika virus (ZIKV) transmission by two mosquito vectors with distinct characteristics: Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus . Observed climate data were used to dynamically drive a two vectors–one host R ₀ epidemiological model. Our modeling results indicate that temperature conditions related to the 2015 El Niño climate phenomenon were exceptionally conducive for mosquito-borne transmission of ZIKV over South America. The virus is believed to have entered the continent earlier in 2013. This finding implicates that such a large ZIKV outbreak occurred not solely because of the introduction of ZIKV in a naive population, but because the climatic conditions were optimal for mosquito-borne transmission of ZIKV over South America in 2015.

For the past ten years, the number of dengue cases has gradually increased in India. Dengue is driven by complex interactions among host, vector and virus that are influenced by climatic factors. I...

Fasciola hepatica is a trematode parasite with a global distribution, which is responsible for considerable disease and production losses in a range of food producing species. It is also identified by WHO as a re-emerging neglected tropical disease associated with endemic and epidemic outbreaks of disease in human populations. In Europe, F. hepatica is mostly associated with disease in sheep, cattle and goats. This study reviews the most recent advances in our understanding of the transmission, diagnosis, epidemiology and the economic impact of fasciolosis. We also focus on the impact of the spread of resistance to anthelmintics used to control F. hepatica and consider how vaccines might be developed and applied in the context of the immune-modulation driven by the parasite. Several major research gaps are identified which, when addressed, will contribute to providing focussed and where possible, bespoke, advice for farmers on how to integrate stock management and diagnosis with vaccination and/or targeted treatment to more effectively control the parasite in the face of increasing the prevalence of infection and spread of anthelmintic resistance that are likely to be exacerbated by climate change.