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Tropical medicine began to emerge in the 19th century, when physicians charged with the medical care of colonists and soldiers first encountered infectious diseases unknown in the temperate European climate. Several major advances in the control of tropical diseases occurred in the last quarter of the 19th century.
- Overview
- Historical overview of tropical diseases
- Neglected tropical diseases
tropical disease, any disease that is indigenous to tropical or subtropical areas of the world or that occurs principally in those areas. Examples of tropical diseases include malaria, cholera, Chagas disease, yellow fever, and dengue.
Diseases of the tropics and subtropics have been known since ancient times. For example, ancient physicians, including Greek physician Hippocrates and Roman medical writer Aulus Cornelius Celsus, wrote about malarial diseases, and modern molecular analyses of Egyptian mummies have suggested that malaria was present in ancient Egypt. Other tropical diseases were recognized later. For example, after the Spanish conquest in the 16th century, Europeans discovered yellow fever, a disease present in tropical Africa and South America.
Scientific interest in the identification and classification of tropical diseases emerged in the 19th century, when increasing numbers of Europeans and Americans, as a result of exploration and colonial expansion, were brought into contact with infectious diseases in tropical and subtropical climates. The study of tropical diseases formed the basis of tropical medicine. Among the first diseases to be investigated were filariasis, malaria, and yellow fever. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many tropical diseases were found to be transmitted by vectors, such as mosquitoes, fleas, lice, snails, and other animals, and some diseases were linked to contaminated food or water. Eventually, the pathogens (disease-causing organisms) for many tropical diseases were identified; they include bacteria, viruses, and parasites.
Numerous tropical diseases have been described, and they collectively affect hundreds of millions of people worldwide each year. However, while many tropical diseases have been eliminated from more-developed countries, some of those diseases have remained major sources of illness and mortality in poor, marginalized, and rural regions. Those diseases, known as neglected tropical diseases, affect roughly one billion people globally. Examples of neglected tropical diseases include African sleeping sickness, Chagas disease, dengue, guinea worm disease, leishmaniasis, leprosy, lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, rabies, schistosomiasis, trachoma, and yaws.
Efforts to prevent and control neglected tropical diseases have been challenged by the limited international visibility of the diseases, by the significant economic and social problems that face afflicted regions, by a lack of medical access in those regions, and by a lack of local education about the diseases. In the early 21st century, however, increased international attention led to improved research funding and accessibility to medical care in some affected areas. Although drugs were available for only a few neglected tropical diseases, so-called mass drug administration, in which drugs were made available to large numbers of people, and other interventions, such as vector control and sanitation and hygiene improvements, proved highly effective against the diseases.
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- Kara Rogers
What is Tropical Medicine. Tropical medicine is the study of the world’s major tropical diseases and related conditions, which include a group of 17 neglected tropical diseases (sometimes referred to as ‘NTDs’) such as hookworm infection, schistosomiasis, river blindness, elephantiasis, trachoma, Chagas disease, Buruli ulcer, and ...
Tropical medicine requires an interdisciplinary approach, as the infections and diseases tropical medicine faces are both broad and unique. Tropical medicine requires research and assistance from the fields of epidemiology, microbiology, virology, parasitology, and logistics. Physicians of tropical medicine must have effective communication ...
Nov 20, 2020 · Tropical medicine is an interdisciplinary field. The fight to mitigate and eradicate tropical diseases requires professionals across a broad spectrum of health care, including public health. Epidemiologists, community health practitioners, and public health educators work with physicians, microbiologists, and other healthcare experts to prevent ...
Dec 1, 2022 · Leishmaniasis is a group of diseases caused by parasites of the genus Leishmania, which is endemic in 88 countries and leads to significant morbidity and mortality. This infectious disease is ...
Contact Information. Tropical Medicine. Cox Building, 5th Floor. 55 Fruit Street. Boston, MA 02114. Phone: 617-724-6454. Hours: By appointment only. Please call 866-211-6588 to register with the hospital before calling to make an appointment.
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