Connecting human health with nature

When Jair Bolsanaro became president of Brazil in 2019, he quickly got to work dismantling environmental protections. Soon, illegal goldminers poured into the previously protected lands of the Indigenous Yanomami people, destroying forest ecosystems and leaving behind pools of stagnant water ideal for mosquito breeding. In the Amazon, just a 1% increase in illegal goldmining led to a 32% increase in malaria among the Yanomami, according to research Stanford biology postdoctoral scholar Daniela de Angeli Dutra presented at the Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases Conference on campus last month. This cautionary tale of ecological destruction’s humanitarian consequences illuminates the focus of Stanford’s newly launched Program on Disease Ecology in a Changing World (DECO).

“At the time, I was witnessing the horrific news about the humanitarian crisis in Brazil, my home country. I was angered but also felt helpless.” de Angeli Dutra said. “Here at Stanford, I have had the opportunity to use my research skills to spotlight this issue and show what effect illegal gold mining had on human health.”

Led by Stanford biologists Erin Mordecai and Giulio de Leo, DECO works with local communities to better understand connections between the environment and human health, and to pursue ecological solutions to public health challenges. The program brings together Stanford researchers from a range of disciplines to study the ecological, environmental, and socioeconomic drivers of diseases transmitted through the environment, and to investigate changes in where those diseases occur, how they spread, and the role of climate and land-use change in both. DECO is a part of the Human and Planetary Health Initiative, a new collaboration between the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and the Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health at the Stanford School of Medicine.  

“Our health is intimately connected to the health of the planet,” said Mordecai. “Once people realize that, the importance of protecting habitat, reducing carbon emissions, and safeguarding biodiversity becomes obvious.”

“Our emphasis on partner-engaged, solutions-oriented research and opportunities available through the parternship between the Doerr School of Sustainability and the School of Medicine make this an ideal setting to launch DECO,” said De Leo.  

Last month, DECO hosted the Ecology & Evolution of Infectious Diseases Conference. Themed “Healthy Planet, Healthy People,” the event emphasized the interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental well-being. More than 40 researchers, including de Angeli Dutra, presented findings on issues ranging from how urbanization is changing bat migration patterns and potentially shifting disease spillover risk in Australia to how dengue is moving from urban to rural areas due to mosquito breeding in Costa Rican agricultural crops.

“Our health is tied to (bats’) health, and their health is tied to the health of the environment,” said Raina Plowright of Cornell University, on the case for preventing pandemics by restoring bat habitat.

Even for long-established human diseases, scientists emphasized the importance of understanding the role of the environment. “Malaria is mostly a disease of housing and surface water,” said Fredros Okumu of the Ifakara Institute in Tanzania.” What if we just stopped these mosquitoes from breeding? Can we make progress?”

To offset carbon dioxide emissions for conference-related travel, DECO purchased carbon credits from the Gold Standard Uganda Gender Responsive Safe Water Project.

"By integrating win-win carbon credit initiatives, we are setting a new benchmark for eco-conscious conferences, said Amelia Meyer, a research scientist with DECO who spearheaded the carbon credits effort. “It demonstrates our commitment to place-based solutions that prevent disease burdens while supporting nature, communities, and climate change mitigation."
 

Mordecai is an associate professor of biology at Stanford’s School of Humanities and Sciences, a faculty fellow at the Center for Innovation in Global Health and the King Center on Global Development, and a member of Bio-X. De Leo is a professor of Oceans and Earth System Science at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. Mordecai and De Leo are senior fellows at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, and founding leaders of the Stanford Human and Planetary Health Initiative. The King Center on Global Development supported the Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases Conference.