Climate and National Security Threats From

Climate change reveals disease as national security threat

A boy who was thought to contract malaria after the 2005 Indian Ocean tsunami as disease stricken the population. | Norman Ng / Kansas City Star / MCT

January 10, 2011 - One of the most worrisome national security threats of climate change is the spread of disease, among both people and animals, U.S. intelligence and health officials say.

But more than a decade after such concerns were first raised by U.S. intelligence agencies, significant gaps remain in the health surveillance and response network — not just in developing nations, but in the United States as well, according to those officials and a review of federal documents and reports.

And those gaps, they say, undermine the ability of the U.S. and world health officials to respond to disease outbreaks before they become national security threats. {continued}