Global analysis of environmental and socioeconomic factors associated with human burden of environmentally mediated pathogens (Q6699013)

This repository contains four datasets that support repeatability of the analyses in the Sokolow et al. paper published in Lancet Planetary Health. Descriptions of the four datasets are included in the metadata document. This study found that 80% of pathogen species known to infect humans are environmentally mediated, causing about 40% of contemporary infectious-disease burden (global loss of 130 million years of healthy life annually). More than 91% of this environmentally-mediated disease burden occurs in tropical countries, and the poorest countries carry the highest burdens across all latitudes. There were weak associations between disease burden and biodiversity or agricultural land use at the global scale. In contrast, the proportion of people with rural poor livelihoods in a country was a strong proximate indicator of environmentally mediated infectious disease burden there. Political stability and wealth were associated with improved sanitation, better health care, and lower proportions of rural poverty, indirectly resulting in lower burdens of environmentally mediated infections."