Comments on: Emergent diseases and multidisciplinarity (MSE Speaker Series, 11 November 15, 2009) https://rose.geog.mcgill.ca/wordpress/?p=1344 Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:09:08 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.8.10 By: rachel https://rose.geog.mcgill.ca/wordpress/?p=1344&cpage=1#comment-66049 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:44:59 +0000 http://rose.geog.mcgill.ca/wordpress/?p=1344#comment-66049 Natalie, you’re absolutely right about the place of disease-causing organisms in nature – as one of my Master’s supervisors, David Marcogliese at Environment Canada, likes to point out, healthy ecosystems have healthy parasites. However, disease organisms such as parasites, viruses and bacteria become a problem when human interventions in the environment, such as the careless use and release of antibiotics, cause them to rapidly evolve.

]]> By: natalie https://rose.geog.mcgill.ca/wordpress/?p=1344&cpage=1#comment-66044 Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:56:41 +0000 http://rose.geog.mcgill.ca/wordpress/?p=1344#comment-66044 Rachel, I enjoyed reading your views on the Paradigm of Multidisciplinarity and agree in practice, engaging a variety of partners is a challenging task.

It is, however, your comment on diseases as an environmental problem that really caught my interest. When we think in an ecological sense, are disease vectors such as bacteria or viruses a problem, or a solution?

Disease is just one of the many mechanisms of checks and balances operating to release physical and biological systems from the stresses imposed by an over-populated species. We understand this phenomenon when it concerns other species, but have difficulty applying it to humanity. How do we reconcile a view of disease as an environmental problem, in light of our moral and ethical obligations to heal the sick?

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