The influence of vector-borne disease on human history: socio-ecological mechanisms

Abstract

Vector-borne diseases (VBDs) are embedded within complex socio-ecological systems. While research has traditionally focused on the direct effects of VBDs on human morbidity and mortality, it is increasingly clear that their impacts are much more pervasive. VBDs are dynamically linked to feedbacks between environmental conditions, vector ecology, disease burden, and societal responses that drive transmission. As a result, VBDs have had profound influence on human history. Mechanisms include: (1) killing or debilitating large numbers of people, with demographic and population-level impacts; (2) differentially affecting populations based on prior history of disease exposure, immunity, and resistance; (3) being weaponised to promote or justify hierarchies of power, colonialism, racism, classism and sexism; (4) catalysing changes in ideas, institutions, infrastructure, technologies and social practices in efforts to control disease outbreaks; and (5) changing human relationships with the land and environment. We use historical and archaeological evidence interpreted through an ecological lens to illustrate how VBDs have shaped society and culture, focusing on case studies from four pertinent VBDs: plague, malaria, yellow fever and trypanosomiasis. By comparing across diseases, time periods and geographies, we highlight the enormous scope and variety of mechanisms by which VBDs have influenced human history.

Keywords: Arthropod; colonialism; disease ecology; environment; malaria; mosquito; plague; trypanosomiasis; vector-borne disease; yellow fever.

Figure 1.. Socio-ecological feedbacks of vector-borne diseases (VBDs) throughout human history.

Humans have altered natural environments (yellow) in ways that led to outbreaks of diseases (red) such as plague (P), malaria (M), yellow fever (YF), and trypanosomiasis (T) via mechanisms explained by the corresponding vector ecologies (green). In response to these diseases, human societies have improved technologies, institutions, and infrastructure for human well-being, but also inflicted additional pain and suffering by weaponizing diseases in warfare, and perpetuating hierarchies of power, colonialism, racism, classism, and sexism (blue). Some of these social responses fed back into anthropogenic environmental changes (yellow).

Figure 2.. Timeline of vector-borne disease impacts across history.

Plague, malaria, yellow fever, and trypanosomiasis have affected human history from the Paleolithic era to the modern age through a variety of mechanisms; case studies highlighted for Africa (orange), Asia (yellow), Australia (purple), Europe (green), North America (blue), and South America (red).