Tropical medicine is an interdisciplinary branch of medicine that deals with health issues that occur uniquely, are more widespread, or are more difficult to control in tropical and subtropical regions.
Major-General Sir David Bruce was a Scottish pathologist and microbiologist who made some of the key contributions in tropical medicine. In 1887, he discovered a bacterium, now called Brucella, that caused what was known as Malta fever. In 1894, he discovered a protozoan parasite, named Trypanosoma brucei, as the causative pathogen of nagana.
Sir Patrick Manson was a Scottish physician who made important discoveries in parasitology, and was a founder of the field of tropical medicine. He graduated from University of Aberdeen with degrees in Master of Surgery, Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Law. His medical career spanned mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and London. He discovered that filariasis in humans is transmitted by mosquitoes. This is the foundation of modern tropical medicine, and he is recognized with an epithet "Father of Tropical Medicine". This also made him the first person to show pathogen transmission by a blood-feeding arthropod. His discovery directly invoked the mosquito-malaria theory, which became the foundation in malariology. He eventually became the first President of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. He founded the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
William Henry Welch was an American physician, pathologist, bacteriologist, and medical-school administrator. He was one of the "Big Four" founding professors at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He was the first dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and was also the founder of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, the first school of public health in the country. Welch was more known for his cogent summations of current scientific work, than his own scientific research. The Johns Hopkins medical school library is also named after Welch. In his lifetime, he was called the "Dean of American Medicine" and received various awards and honors throughout his lifetime and posthumously.
Wake Forest University School of Medicine is the medical school of Wake Forest University, with two campuses located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. It is affiliated with Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, the academic medical center whose clinical arm is Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist. In 2021, U.S. News & World Report ranked Wake Forest School of Medicine 48th best for research in the nation and 80th best for primary care. The School of Medicine also ranks in the top third of U.S. medical schools in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Major-General Ian Patrick Crawford, was a British Army medical officer and expert on preventive medicine who was awarded the George Medal for saving the life of a Gurkha officer following a helicopter crash in the Borneo Jungle during the Malaysia-Indonesia confrontation in April 1964.
Thomas Jones Mackie CBE FRSE LLD was a noted Scottish bacteriologist; Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Edinburgh; and author of medical research textbooks.
The Walter Reed Tropical Medicine Course at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) is one of the many Tropical Medicine Training Courses available in the US and worldwide. It is an intensive 5-day course and a 3-day short course, created to familiarize students with tropical diseases they may encounter overseas. The course is open to Physicians, Physician Assistants, Nurse Practitioners, ESO, 18D, or other medical personnel. The course is run by the military and designed for personnel of the US Military and several other US government agencies.
George W. Hunter III was a parasitologist and educator with the US Army Sanitary Corps and Army Medical School. He is best known for his work with Schistosoma control and with the Tropical Medicine Course at the Army Medical School. The textbook he helped create for the Tropical Medicine Course now is the leading reference text for Tropical Medicine and the title bears his name.
Charles Brooke Worth was an American naturalist and virologist who worked as a professor at Swarthmore College, with the US Army during World War II, and then with the Rockefeller Foundation during the post-war period working on matters of public health and mosquito-borne diseases. He travelled around the world, including countries in Africa and Asia, and was the author of several books, including Manual of Tropical Medicine, A Naturalist in Trinidad, The Nature of Living Things, and Mosquito Safari: A Naturalist In Southern Africa, Of mosquitoes, moths, and mice.
Edmund Alexander Parkes was an English physician, known as a hygienist, particularly in the military context.
Adetokunbo Oluwole Lucas was a Nigerian doctor who was considered a global leader in tropical diseases. Born in Lagos, he was educated in the United Kingdom and commenced his professional career in Nigeria. Lucas received the Prince Mahidol Award in 1999 for his support of strategic research on the tropical diseases. He served for ten years as the Director of Special Programmes for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases based at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. He was Adjunct Professor of International Health Department of Global Health and Population of the Harvard School of Public Health. Lucas worked largely during his life time in his home nation of Nigeria and traveled frequently to the United Kingdom and to the Harvard School of Public Health in the United States.
The Manson Medal, named in honour of Sir Patrick Manson, is the highest accolade the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene awards. Started in 1923, it is awarded triennially to an individual whose contribution to tropical medicine or hygiene is deemed worthy by the council.
Sir Arthur Newsholme was a leading British public health expert during the Victorian era.
Dalla Lana School of Public Health is the school of public health at the University of Toronto. It was founded in 1927, and was home for 50 years to Connaught Laboratories, a manufacturer of vaccines, insulin, and many other pharmaceutical products. Having grown to be the largest cluster of public health scholars in Canada, the school was revitalized in 2008 with the support of a major gift from the Dalla Lana family.
Sir Arnold Ashley Miles CBE FRS was the Director of the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine and Professor of Experimental Pathology in the University of London from 1952 to 1971.
Tha Hla Shwe is a Burmese physician who served as president of the Myanmar Red Cross Society from 2006 to 2016. He has also served as Rector of the University of Medicine 2, Yangon from 1992 to 2004.
Claude Nash Herndon Jr. was an American human geneticist who taught and conducted research at the Bowman Gray School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, NC. He was the school's senior associate dean for research and development for many years.
Frederick Creighton Wellman was an American physician specialising in tropical medicine, scientist, author, playwright, teacher, artist and engineer. As an author, he wrote under the pseudonyms Cyril Kay-Scott and Richard Irving Carson. His colorful life led to the epithet "the Casanova of Tropical Medicine".
Janet Welch Mackie was an English doctor who worked mainly in East Africa and the United States. Her work, research and published material helped in establishing modern healthcare and nursing practices in the developing world. From 1926 until 1938 she worked as a medical missionary with the Church of Scotland, working mostly in Blantyre in modern day Malawi. In 1942 she emigrated to the United States. In 1946 she became an assistant professor at the Bowman Gray Medical School in North Carolina and eventually went on to become a medical consultant to the United States Public Health Service and World Health Organisation.
