Don't miss this comprehensive overview of the subdiscipline of medical geography, including its history from ancient times to the present day and information about the latest in medical geography mapping from contributing writer Amanda Briney.
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Great post Amanda! I’m so glad you wrote about this topic because medical geography was one of my favorite courses in college.
I think medical geography will become an increasingly popular sub-genre of geography and increasingly important to public health practitioners in coming decades. Changing global conditions, including increased travel and interconnectivity, as well as climactic changes like global warming, are likely to dramatically impact the character of disease distribution and diffusion worldwide.
Take for example the SARs epidemic of a few years ago. The disease quickly crossed borders from Asia to Europe and North America; its spread could be directly linked to a cluster of airplane travelers.
Many fear that tropical diseases like malaria and yellow fever are likely to expand in geographic distribution, affecting more people in more places around the world, as tropical environments increase in area with the onset of global warming.
These will certainly be trends to watch. I hope to see more coverage of medical geography on this blog in the future!