Ecological Aspects of Disease and Human Populations | Zendy

Robert M. May | Zendy

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Ecological Aspects of Disease and Human Populations

Author(s) -

Robert M. May

Publication year - 1985

Publication title -

american zoologist

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

eISSN - 2162-4445

pISSN - 0003-1569

DOI - 10.1093/icb/25.2.441

Subject(s) - biology , ecology , predation , transmissibility (structural dynamics) , population , basic reproduction number , infectious disease (medical specialty) , population biology , transmission (telecommunications) , disease , demography , computer science , sociology , medicine , telecommunications , physics , vibration isolation , quantum mechanics , pathology , vibration

This paper shows how some basic ecological themes can be illustrated, in a very explicit and quantitative way, by examples drawn from the interactions between human hosts and their infectious diseases. I first discuss the population biology of infectious diseases, showing how basic reproductive rates and density dependent limitations may be estimated. Observed cycles in the incidence of childhood infections are discussed as examples of Lotka-Volterra prey-predator cycles. Trade-offs between virulence and transmissibility in the evolution of parasite life histories are discussed in general,with the Australian rabbit-myxoma virus story as a case study. I conclude by mentioning ways in which the interplay between population density and transmission thresholds may have influenced human history.

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