Study Shows Disease Spread During Heat Waves Is Uneven

When researchers mimicked heat waves in the lab to see how climate change might affect the spread of disease, they found that dialing up the temperature had the potential to lead to two very different outcomes: A spike in the population of disease-spreading parasites or a collapse in their numbers.

While scientists have known for decades that heat waves lead to the proliferation of disease, from mosquito-borne malaria to respiratory infections like pneumonia, it’s becoming increasingly clear that, contrary to the conventional wisdom, such diseases won’t spread evenly. The new research, which was published in PLOS Climate on Wednesday, ...