Yale Bulletin and Calendar

November 12, 2004|Volume 33, Number 11

New center to foster joint study
of ecology, epidemiology

The Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies (YIBS) has announced the establishment of the Center for Eco-Epidemiology (YIBSCEE) at Yale, designed to bridge the gap between the study of the environment and research on public health issues.

The creation of a forum for exchange between the disciplines of epidemiology and ecology is extremely important, says the new center's director, Durland Fish, professor in the Division of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases (EMD), part of the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health (EPH) at the School of Medicine.

While many environmental issues also pose health threats, finding solutions to these problems has been complicated by the intellectual gap that exists between epidemiology, which is a medical discipline, and ecology, which is an environmental discipline, notes Fish.

"Epidemiology and ecology have a lot in common," he says. "Both collect data from the field, and both try to understand how organisms persist in their environment. Ecologists are better at this in some ways, and epidemiologists are better in other ways. But the two disciplines do not communicate enough to overcome each other's deficiencies. "Medical epidemiology lacks a comprehensive understanding of natural environmental processes that influence disease agents, and environmental science lacks the sound methodology and advanced technology of contemporary epidemiological investigation," he notes.

The lack of collaboration between the disciplines, Fish adds, has been reinforced by funding barriers: The National Science Foundation does not fund medical research, and the National Institutes of Health does not fund ecological research.

The Lyme disease and West Nile Virus epidemics illustrate the need for an interdisciplinary approach to addressing public health challenges arising from environmental events, contends Fish.

In the case of Lyme disease, he notes, reforestation of the Northeast has caused changes in the population density and distribution of the white-tailed deer and, correspondingly, its natural parasite the deer tick. These changes, in turn, have caused an epidemic of Lyme disease as humans have increasingly come into contact with ticks infected with the Lyme disease spirochete, explains Fish, pointing out that implementing environmental interventions that would decrease human risk of contracting Lyme disease requires specific ecological knowledge.

In the case of West Nile Virus, he says, the risk of infection in humans, wildlife and domestic animals is dependent on characteristics of certain mosquito populations. Mosquito control requires detailed knowledge of environmental factors that affect mosquito abundance, Fish explains. Thus, although effective control of Lyme disease and West Nile Virus requires environmental solutions, only public health agencies -- which do not have staff trained to develop environmentally-based mitigation strategies -- are responsible for developing interventions and policy, notes the researcher.

"Yale is in an excellent position to facilitate this interdisciplinary effort [between epidemiology and ecology] because we have a medical school on the same campus as ecology and environmental science. We can play a leadership role in both training and research. Both disciplines will benefit from integration, as will society,"
says Fish.

YIBSCEE, which will be operational in the fall of 2005, will host symposia and seminar series; foster the creation of new undergraduate and graduate courses dealing with health and the environment; and coordinate Yale's existing cross-disciplinary curricula. One of YIBSCEE's goals is to help develop an interdisciplinary doctoral program in epidemiology and ecology/environmental science at Yale, notes Fish. Topics YIBSCEE will address include global warming, biodiversity, environmental change, wildlife, environmental impact assessment, and bioterrorism.

YIBSCEE will involve faculty from the School of Medicine (particularly the Department of Internal Medicine and EPH's Divisions of EMD, Environmental Health Sciences and Biostatistics), as well as the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, the Graduate School and the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

-- By Christy Gordon

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