The triangle of human ecology is a holistic approach that focuses on how habitat, population,

and behavioral relationships among interacting populations affect the human state of health
(Meade and Earickson 2000). Disease ecology examines the relationships between
populations and the changing environment, and studies how processes of population
interactions support or discourage disease (Meade and Earickson 2000). These factors were
presented by Meade and Earickson as the triangle of human ecology illustrated by the
diagram below;

Triangle of Human Ecology. (Meade and Earickson 2000)

Discriminatory laws and policies enhance women’s vulnerability to HIV. Laws and policies
that prevent women from owning land, property, and other productive resources are examples
of legislation that supports and increases gender discrimination. Other forms of gender-based
and policy supported discrimination in the areas of employment, education and access to
health care services and information further exacerbate women’s vulnerability to HIV.
Women in sub-Saharan Africa are more likely to be infected with HIV than men. Women’s
vulnerability to HIV is compounded by gender inequality. For example, lower socioeconomic
status and levels of education can increase their likelihood of infection through
disempowered sexual relationships and diminished access to health services. Therefore, this
enhances the notion that Meade and Earickson`s theory of human ecology of disease is
applicable in the environmental distribution of infectious diseases.

Habitat is another issue to be considered when looking the spread of infectious diseases. For
example, people stay inside their houses more in the winter than in the summer. Since people
are in close contact inside buildings, infectious diseases like the common cold spread faster.
During the winter, people spend more time indoors with the windows sealed, so they are
more likely to breathe the same air as someone who has the flu and thus contract the virus.
Additionally, is the fact of new habitats that are built by human beings which create
opportunities for the spread of infectious diseases. New habitats, such as standing pools of
water or agricultural monocultures, lead to the spread of infectious diseases. For example, in
the 1950s Rhodesia built the Kariba Dam to supply its growing population with electrical
energy from the Zambezi. This created ideal habitat for species of flatworms which cause
schistosomiasis, an infectious disease which affects the circulatory system. Thus, one may
argue that the issue of habitat is intractably related to the Meade and Earickson’s disease
ecology.

Technology has led to easier and faster means of transportation is encouraging people to
travel more frequently and at greater distances, and as the demand for international travel
continues to rise, exposure to new and different strains of infectious agents is becoming more
frequent, escalating the risk of human infection and providing a global route of disease
transport. Data suggest that the current pandemic started in the mid-1990s and by 2010,
through air travel, sea travel and human migration, had spread to between 100 000 and 300
000 people on at least five continents (Mann, 2012). For example, the spread of the Ebola
virus from West Africa to USA was as a result of transportation. Thus, one may say
technology just Meade and Earickson’s theory of human ecology of disease is applicable in
the environmental distribution of infectious diseases.

People living in close proximity, such as in the city, are more likely to spread infection than
are those living in the rural areas, where there is less person-to-person contract. Population
density and urbanization are two major factors affecting disease spread. People who live in
close proximity to one another spread diseases more quickly and easily. Slums around urban
areas are extremely vulnerable to infectious diseases due to poor sanitation, high population
density and high levels of poverty, all of which increase disease incidence. For example, the
increasing number of people living in Mbare which facilitated the spread of cholera outbreak
in 2008 and high density of population weaken attempts to control the disease. Hence, it is
beyond reasonable doubt that the human ecology of disease is important in understanding the
environmental distribution of infectious diseases.

Deforestation, with subsequent changes in land use and human settlement patterns coincided
with an upsurge of malaria or its vectors in Africa (Collins, 1994). When tropical forests are
cleared for human activities, they are typically converted into agricultural or grazing lands.
This process is usually exacerbated by construction of roads, causing erosion and allowing
previously inaccessible areas to become colonized (Kallad, 1993) and anopheles mosquitoes
to invade. Virtually all the world's terrestrial and aquatic communities have undergone
dramatic changes in biodiversity due primarily to habitat transformations such as
deforestation and agricultural intensification, invasions of exotic species, chemical
contamination and climate-change events (Scheiner, 2006). Cleared lands collect rainwater is
far more suitable breeding sites for malaria-transmitting anopheles mosquitoes than forests.
For instance, expanding ecotourism and forest encroachment have increased opportunities for
interactions between wild non-human primates and humans in tropical forest habitats, leading
to pathogen exchange through various routes of transmission (Wolfe et al. 2000). As a result
one can simply argue that the human ecology of disease is important in understanding the
environmental distribution of infectious diseases.

Behavioural responses are influenced by various factors, such as religious, cultural beliefs
and norms that can be clustered both spatially and socially. Even within social groups, there
is individual-level variability, and responses are constrained by our personal circumstances.
For example, people feel obliged to shake hands when greeting in an African setup
irrespective of whether they feel at risk of cholera infection. Additionally, human behaviour
may be influenced by a myriad of factors ranging from media to person-to-person
communication. The behavioural response towards an infectious disease for instance, whether
to get vaccinated during an epidemic is shaped by a combination of these influences, and how
people evaluate them with respect to the alternatives. Furthermore, migration which is
attached to human behaviour also affects the spread of disease. The probability of
encountering new diseases increases as humans move into previously uninhabited lands
because of population growth, or as humans migrate into areas where they do not have
resistance to certain diseases. People who move from dry highlands to wet lowlands can
become exposed to malaria. Migrants maybe particularly vulnerable to malarial infection
because of the fatigue and malnutrition that accompany relocation. According to Jangola
(2005) a growing numbers of people are moving within and across national borders after
being forced from their homes by war, poverty, or famine. People in poor nations often suffer
from more than one infection because poverty breeds many diseases at once, including
HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, respiratory and intestinal infections, and neglected diseases
of poverty such as intestinal worms, Chagas disease, and dengue fever. Malaria is among the
leading causes of death in the developing world in children under the age of five. When there
is a lapse in political will to support disease prevention efforts, such as childhood
vaccinations, disease can emerge rapidly. As such, this enhances the notion that Meade and
Earickson`s theory of human ecology of disease is applicable in the environmental
distribution of infectious diseases.

Climate is one of the main factors that defines the distribution of disease vectors (Gratz
1999). Higher temperatures support a growing population and the increased infection rate of
important vector species; their overall distribution may be expanding due to global warming.
Climate can affect disease transmission in a variety of ways. The distribution and population
size of disease vectors can be heavily affected by local climate. Flooding after heavy rains
can result in sewage overflow and widespread water contamination. In addition, there is some
evidence to suggest that pathogens can be spread from one region to another along air
streams or by wind. Thus, Meade and Earickson’s Human Ecology of Disease Theory can be
applied to understand the factors which determine the environmental distribution of
infectious diseases.

However, economic growth and development can contribute to the emergence of new
diseases, even as they bring many benefits. Some of the industrialized agricultural farming
and food production practices that often accompany development increase the risk of food
products becoming contaminated with E. coli and Salmonella. Farming practices such as
raising poultry in close proximity create conditions that are favourable to outbreaks of avian
influenza. Administering antibiotics to livestock and poultry flocks also poses a threat to
humans. When humans eat food treated with antibiotics, it can lead to drug-resistant bacteria,
rendering some common antibiotics less effective. In addition, it is not only a public health
issue, but an economic one. World Bank (2009) estimated that a severe influenza pandemic,
for example, could cost the world economy $3 trillion. The problem is exacerbated by how
livestock are kept in poor countries, which can magnify diseases borne by wild animals.
Hence, one may argue that the spread of infectious diseases if better understood in economic
terms rather than the Meade and Earickson’s theory of the disease ecology.

Laws and policies create the environments in which HIV prevention, treatment, care, and
support services are delivered. Politics and policies that are driven by conservative and
traditional ideologies have dire consequences on the epidemic and further fuel infection rates
among key vulnerable populations such as women and girls, injecting drug users, and sex
workers. National prevention policies pursued by governments have a profound impact on the
way in which the HIV epidemic plays out in a country. In sub-Saharan Africa, a majority of
young adults lack adequate knowledge of HIV transmission yet some governments
emphasize abstinence as the only approach and promote inaccurate information about the
effectiveness of condoms. For example, in Uganda the government promotes virginity
parades and restricts the availability of condoms to youth while the epidemic in a country
once considered a success story has worsened dramatically. Therefore, governments must
allocate adequate resources towards HIV programs that meet the unique needs of women,
men, and vulnerable populations as it has proved to another how diseases spread.

In conclusion, Meade and Earickson’s Human Ecology of Disease Theory can be applied to
understand the factors which determine the environmental distribution of infectious diseases.
Considering how population, habitat and behavioural relationships among interacting
populations affect the human state of health.
REFERENCES

Collins , A. L., ed. (1994). Control of communicable diseases in man. Washington: Health
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Gratz, N. G. (1999). "Emerging and Resurging Vector-Borne Diseases." Annual Review of

Entomology. Washington: McGraw-Hill.

Jangola, B. Z. (2005). “West Nile Fever Outbreak, Israel, 2005: Epidemiologic Aspects."
Emerging Infectious Diseases. Chicago: Chicago University Press.

Kallad , J. (1993). Microbiology, Principles and Applications. New York: Prentice Hall.

Mann, J. M.(2012). AIDS: a worldwide pandemic. A Current Topics in AIDS. Chichester:

Wiley.

Meade, M. S. and Earickson, R. J. (` 2000). Medical Geography. New York: The Guilford
Press.

Scheiner, B.J (2006). "Natural and experimental infection of Egyptian equine with West Nile
virus. Cairo: Polite Press.

Wolfe, M. J. et al. (2000). "Vector Competence of Culex tarsalis from Orange County.
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World Bank (2009). The World Health Report 2009: Reducing Risks, Promoting Healthy
Life. New York: World Bank Press.