Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33501751›Full record

ReviewEcology letters2021

The influence of vector-borne disease on human history: socio-ecological mechanisms.

Tejas S Athni, Marta S Shocket, Lisa I Couper, Nicole Nova, Iain R Caldwell, Jamie M Caldwell, Jasmine N Childress, Marissa L Childs, Giulio A De Leo, Devin G Kirk and 21 more

Open access · greenAbstract readReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in Ecology letters, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
28citing papers in PubMed, 2 pooled it
8.4field-weighted citation impact, top 2% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

28 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 61 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Ecology of Malaria Mortality: A Spatiotemporal Mapping Approach.American journal of biological anthropology · 2026
    Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Phylogenomics redefines the evolutionary history of mosquitoes.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Review
  17. Pathogen prospecting of museums: Reconstructing malaria epidemiology.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024
    Article
  18. A History of Malaria and Conflict.Parasitology research · 2024
    Review
  19. Review
  20. Pathogenetic identification in ticks and yaks from Zoige County, China.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2024
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

31 authors at 9 institutions in 3 countries.

Tejas S AthniDepartment of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6336-0826
Marta S ShocketDepartment of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Lisa I CouperDepartment of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7417-8675
Nicole NovaDepartment of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8585-1215
Iain R CaldwellARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia.
Jamie M CaldwellDepartment of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Jasmine N ChildressDepartment of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.
Marissa L ChildsEmmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8597-2161
Giulio A De LeoHopkins Marine Station, Stanford University, Pacific Grove, CA, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4186-3369
Devin G KirkDepartment of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9588-1004
Andrew J MacDonaldBren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.
Kathryn OlivariusDepartment of History, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
David G PickelDepartment of Classics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Steven O RobertsDepartment of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Olivia C WinokurDepartment of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis, CA, USA.
Hillary S YoungDepartment of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.
Julian ChengDepartment of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Elizabeth A GrantDepartment of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Patrick M KurznerDepartment of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Saw KyawDepartment of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Bradford J LinDepartment of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Ricardo C LopezDepartment of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Diba S MassihpourDepartment of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Erica C OlsenDepartment of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Maggie RoacheDepartment of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Angie RuizDepartment of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Emily A SchultzDepartment of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Muskan ShafatDepartment of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Rebecca L SpencerDepartment of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Nita BhartiDepartment of Biology, Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics, Penn State University, University Park, PA, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1940-7794
Erin A MordecaiDepartment of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4402-5547
Stanford University · USUniversity of California, Santa Barbara · USARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies · AUPennsylvania State University · USSmithsonian Marine Station · USUniversity of British Columbia · CAUniversity of California, Davis · USUniversity of California, Los Angeles · USUniversity of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa · US

Funding

Leveraging environmental drivers to predict vector-borne disease transmissionR35GM133439 · NIGMS · STANFORD UNIVERSITY · PI Erin Mordecai · 2019 to 2026
$3.2M
Environmental Ventures Program from the Stanford Woods Institute for the EnvironmentFIC NIH HHS EEID grant 2011147Helman ScholarshipHuck Institutes of the Life Sciences at Penn State UniversityIllich-Sadowsky Fellowship through the Stanford Interdisciplinary Graduate FellowshipNational Science Foundation DEB-1518681National Science Foundation DEB-1716698National Science Foundation DEB-2011147National Science Foundation NSF Graduate Research Fellowship 1650042National Science Foundation NSF Graduate Research Fellowship 1650114NIGMS NIH HHS R35 GM133439NIGMS NIH HHS R35GM133439Ric Weiland Graduate Fellowship in the HumanitiesStanford Data Science ScholarsStanford Graduate FellowshipStanford King Center for Global DevelopmentTerman Fellowship
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Vector-borne diseases (VBDs) are embedded within complex socio-ecological systems. While research has traditionally focused on the direct effects of VBDs on human morbidity and mortality, it is increasingly clear that their impacts are much more pervasive. VBDs are dynamically linked to feedbacks between environmental conditions, vector ecology, disease burden, and societal responses that drive transmission. As a result, VBDs have had profound influence on human history. Mechanisms include: (1) killing or debilitating large numbers of people, with demographic and population-level impacts; (2) differentially affecting populations based on prior history of disease exposure, immunity, and resistance; (3) being weaponised to promote or justify hierarchies of power, colonialism, racism, classism and sexism; (4) catalysing changes in ideas, institutions, infrastructure, technologies and social practices in efforts to control disease outbreaks; and (5) changing human relationships with the land and environment. We use historical and archaeological evidence interpreted through an ecological lens to illustrate how VBDs have shaped society and culture, focusing on case studies from four pertinent VBDs: plague, malaria, yellow fever and trypanosomiasis. By comparing across diseases, time periods and geographies, we highlight the enormous scope and variety of mechanisms by which VBDs have influenced human history.

Indexed as

MalariaVector Borne DiseasesDisease VectorsHumansArthropodcolonialismdisease ecologyenvironmentmalariamosquitoplaguetrypanosomiasisvector-borne diseaseyellow fever

Identifiers

PMID33501751
PMCPMC7969392
OpenAlexW3122916354

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceTDM
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.