Global health advocates often argue that the tropical diseases
that plague many countries, such as malaria and dengue, can be
conquered simply with more money for health care - namely
medicines and vaccines. But a new paper is a reminder that
ecology also has a pretty big say in whether pathogens thrive or
die off. Using a statistical model, researchers predicted that
countries that lose biodiversity will have a heavier burden of
vector-borne and parasitic diseases. Their results appear this
week in PLoS Biology. "The general logic is that the more
organisms you have out there, the more things there are that can
interrupt the life cycle of disease, and the less concentration
you'll have of any vector," Matthew Bonds, a researcher at
Harvard Medical School and the lead author of the paper, tells
Shots. But plants, mammals and birds are disappearing fast -
one-third of the world's species are now threatened with
extinction, according to the United Nations. And when the
creatures that prey on mice, mosquitoes or