Environmental change and the dynamics of parasitic diseases in the Amazon

This article discusses how climate and other environment changes have affected, or could affect, the dynamics of parasitic diseases in Amazonia. •The Amazon contains natural foci of vector-borne human parasitic diseases.•Deforestation and changes in climate, have affected the dynamics of these diseases.•The infections affected are malaria, leishmaniasis, Chagas disease and toxoplasmosis.•Targeted epidemiological surveillance is necessary to address disease re-emergence. The Amazonian environment is changing rapidly, due to deforestation, in the short term, and, climatic change is projected to alter its forest cover, in the next few decades. These modifications to the, environment have been altering the dynamics of infectious diseases which have natural foci in the, Amazonian biome, especially in its forest. Current land use practices which are changing the, epidemiological profile of the parasitic diseases in the region are road building; logging; mining; expansion of agriculture and cattle ranching and the building of large dams. Malaria and the cutaneous, leishmaniasis are the diseases best known for their rapid changes in response to environmental, modifications. Others such as soil-transmitted helminthiases, filarial infections and toxoplasmosis, which have part of their developmental cycles in the biophysical environment, are also expected to, change rapidly. An interdisciplinary approach and an integrated, international surveillance are needed, to manage the environmentally-driven changes in the Amazonian parasitic diseases in the near future.