Dynamic Drivers of Disease

Emerging infectious diseases have a huge impact on human wellbeing. In particular, they pose challenges to healthcare in resource-limited regions and place extra burdens on vulnerable people.

About three quarters of these diseases are zoonotic, meaning they spread from wildlife or livestock ‘hosts’ to people, sometimes via an insect ‘vector’. The distribution of zoonotic diseases (zoonoses) is often affected by the ecology and biology of these hosts and vectors, as well as by changes people produce on their environments and social, political and economic factors.

This website considers various scenarios under which four zoonotic diseases might emerge and spread in five African countries.

Scenarios as a communication tool

The scenarios elaborated here are not projections. Rather, they are plausible stories based on expert assessments made by researchers in the Dynamic Drivers of Disease in Africa Consortium (DDDAC), each with profound understanding of local and national contexts, and the complex interaction between social and ecological factors. The stories illustrate what might happen based on given assumptions in the chosen settings. Not only do they explore the intricate interaction between drivers that shape disease risks, but they also work as a tool to communicate important research insights from our work.

The scenarios explored in this website have been developed by the DDDAC researchers. The work has been coordinated by the Stockholm Resilience Centre (Stockholm University). More info