Infectious Diseases Associated with Desert Dust Outbreaks: A Systematic Review

Eleni Vergadi, Glykeria Rouva, Maria Angeli and Emmanouil Galanakis
Additional contact information
Eleni Vergadi: Department of Paediatrics, School of Medicine, University of Crete, 71500 Heraklion, Greece
Glykeria Rouva: Department of Paediatrics, School of Medicine, University of Crete, 71500 Heraklion, Greece
Maria Angeli: Department of Paediatrics, School of Medicine, University of Crete, 71500 Heraklion, Greece
Emmanouil Galanakis: Department of Paediatrics, School of Medicine, University of Crete, 71500 Heraklion, Greece

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 11, 1-10

Abstract: Background: Desert dust outbreaks and dust storms are the major source of particulate matter globally and pose a major threat to human health. We investigated the microorganisms transported with desert dust particles and evaluated their potential impact on human health. Methods: A systematic review of all reports on the association between non-anthropogenic desert dust pollution, dust microorganisms and human health is conducted. Results: In total, 51 articles were included in this review. The affected regions studied were Asia (32/51, 62.7%) followed by Europe (9/51, 17.6%), America (6/51, 11.8%), Africa (4/51, 7.8%) and Australia (1/51, 2.0%). The Sahara Desert was the most frequent source of dust, followed by Asian and American deserts. In 39/51 studies the dust-related microbiome was analyzed, while, in 12/51 reports, the association of desert dust with infectious disease outbreaks was examined. Pathogenic and opportunistic agents were isolated from dust in 24/39 (61.5%) and 29/39 (74.4%) of the studies, respectively. A significant association of dust events with infectious disease outbreaks was found in 10/12 (83.3%) reports. The infectious diseases that were mostly investigated with dust outbreaks were pneumonia, respiratory tract infections, COVID-19, pulmonary tuberculosis and coccidioidomycosis. Conclusions: Desert dust outbreaks are vehicles of a significant number of pathogenic or opportunistic microorganisms and limited data indicate an association between dust events and infectious disease outbreaks. Further research is required to strengthen the correlation between dust events and infectious diseases and subsequently guide preventive public health measures.

Keywords: airborne pathogens; climate change; desert dust; ecosystem and public health; global warming; pollution; microorganisms; infectious diseases; human health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/11/6907/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/11/6907/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:11:p:6907-:d:831998

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().