SARS-CoV-2 emergence and diffusion: a new disease manifesting human-environment interactions and a global geography of health

Sophie O Vanwambeke; Catherine Linard; Marius Gilbert; Simon Dellicour

doi:10.1016/j.cosust.2020.10.011

SARS-CoV-2 emergence and diffusion: a new disease manifesting human-environment interactions and a global geography of health

Curr Opin Environ Sustain. 2020 Oct:46:43-45. doi: 10.1016/j.cosust.2020.10.011. Epub 2020 Oct 27.

Authors

Sophie O Vanwambeke¹, Catherine Linard^{2

3}, Marius Gilbert^{4

5}, Simon Dellicour^{6

7}

Affiliations

¹ Georges Lemaître Centre for Earth and Climate Research, Earth & Life Institute, UCLouvain, Place Pasteur 3, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
² Institute of Life-Earth-Environment (ILEE), Université de Namur, Rue de Bruxelles 61, 5000 Namur, Belgium.
³ Namur Research Institute for Life Sciences (Narilis), Université de Namur, Rue de Bruxelles 61, 5000 Namur, Belgium.
⁴ Spatial Epidemiology Lab (SpELL), Université Libre de Bruxelles, CP264/03, Av. F. Roosevelt, 50, 1050 Brussels, Belgium.
⁵ Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique, Brussels, Belgium.
⁶ Spatial Epidemiology Lab (SpELL), Université Libre de Bruxelles, CP160/12 Av. F. Roosevelt, 50, 1050 Brussels, Belgium.
⁷ Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Transplantation, Rega Institute, KU Leuven, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.

Abstract

SARS-CoV-2, and the disease it causes, COVID-19, is sweeping through the world, disrupting human activities everywhere. The consequences of this on-going event on societies are yet to be fully understood. The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 illustrates how human-environment interaction should be framing research on pathogen spillover. Furthermore, the geography of human contacts at various scales in our globalized and urbanized world affects its diffusion. Both elements plead for a robust backbone of geography of health, including land use, to understanding disease emergence and diffusion.