Climate Change could make RSV Respiratory Infection Outbreaks Less Severe, More Common

Dec. 16, 2019

Princeton University-led researchers studied annual outbreaks of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in one of the first examinations of how climate change could affect diseases such as influenza (pictured) that are transmitted directly from person to person. The researchers, led by PEI Postdoc Rachel Baker with support from CIMES, found that while outbreaks of RSV could become generally less severe, infections may become more common, which could leave people more vulnerable to the virus over the long term, particularly children. The findings were published recently in the journal Nature Communications. CIMES Director Gabe Vecchi, professor geosciences and the Princeton Environmental Institute, and CIMES PI Jessica Metcalf, Princeton assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and public affairs, are among the paper's co-authors.

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