Iain Lake

Biography

Dr Iain Lake is Reader in Environmental Sciences in the School of Environmental Sciences at UEA. He examines the link between the natural environment and public health. For example, he has been looking at: how gastrointestinal infections are affected by the weather, temperature, rainfall; how the climate influences Dengue fever in Mexico and central America; and the impact of climate change on allergies – especially related to pollen.

More recently Iain has developed an adjacent interest in epidemiology and the wider use of syndrome data in understanding the patterns of human disease. He is working with Public Health England to examine health data, to track disease progression and to establish a clearer picture in the (population) status of certain diseases (such as RSV or Respiratory syncytial virus - which is one of the common viruses that cause coughs and colds in winter).
He has been looking at the lessons that can be learnt from data collection on COVID-19 infection and transmission (and what can be learnt about the process of data capture and interpretation). Iain was a co-author of a UK Department of Health / Health Protection Agency report on the Health Impacts of Climate Change in the UK and a member of the Climate Change panel or the Swedish Research Council (Formas).

Areas of Expertise

COVID-19 (Coronavirus)Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV)Natural Environment and Public HealthClimate Change Effects on AllergiesGastrointestinal Pathology

Media Appearances

Millions could avoid deadly fever if world limits warming

Reuters

2018-05-28

“Understanding and quantifying the impacts of warming on human health is crucial for public health preparedness and response,” said co-author Iain Lake in a statement.

Visitors to countryside not attracted by conservation importance

Phys.org

2016-11-10

The study into people's recreation habits, by Karen Hornigold, Dr Iain Lake and Dr Paul Dolman at the University of East Anglia (UEA), is important to inform both the provision of access to natural areas (a.k.a. "green infrastructure") and to mitigate recreational pressures to vulnerable conservation areas.

Hay fever misery set to soar: Millions will suffer in the next 40 years as more pollen is released by warmer temperatures

Daily Mail

2016-08-25

Researcher Iain Lake said: ‘There are two elements to this. The first is that under climate change there is a greater probability of having the plant itself in the UK, although whether this occurs and to what degree depends upon measures taken to prevent its spread.

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