Environmental changes, disease ecology and geographic information system-based tools for risk assessment.

In recent years, several vector-borne, parasitic or zoonotic diseases have emerged or re-emerged in different parts of the world, with major public health, socio-economic and political consequences. Emergence of these diseases is linked to climatic change, human-induced landscape changes and human activities that have affected disease ecology. The authors illustrate geographic information system-based approaches to understand epidemiological processes and predict disease patterns.