The Plagues of Affluence: Human Ecology and the Case of the SARS Epidemic

摘要

In this essay I argue that infectious disease is not simply a product of conditions of poverty because the mutability of pathogens allows them to thrive in multiple niches throughout the complex human ecology. Consequently, certain conditions of affluence may actually contribute to the proliferation of certain diseases like the virulent coronavirus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Thus certain pathogens colonize ecological niches within affluent and technologically sophisticated societies. These so-called plagues of affluence represent a challenge to global health that is largely unaddressed.