The complex interactions among rising carbon dioxide, nitrogen deposition, shifting climate, and other global changes help to confuse predictions about future invasions. By the year 2015, the number of large cities in Asia alone will have doubled. Close to half of the world population lives in urban areas, subject to infection from influenza, tuberculosis, and dengue. Influenza epidemics and tuberculosis continue to plague citizens at an alarming rate. Slums and shanty towns with inherently contaminated water supplies, human crowding, and inadequate health services provide ideal breeding grounds for virus-based infection and transmission.
Dengue is transmitted by a mosquito that breeds almost anywhere.
Cities must be on the alert to monitor infectious disease in a cooperative effort. Preventive methods and health strategies need to be in place to ensure healthy living in big cities. Otherwise city life will further deteriorate into an unhealthy state. There is no room in this argument for sentimental anti-urbanism. Unparalleled interdisciplinary cooperation and long-term governmental perspective are needed if we are to prevent the grand metropolis from becoming a sick and diseased necropolis.