First School of Tropical Medicine in U.S. Celebrates Anniversary

Newswise — The Big Easy always has been an international port city, attracting multitudes of visitors to its steamy, tropical climes. In the 1800s, one of the more infamous visitors was yellow fever, resulting in deadly annual outbreaks of the deadly disease and inspiring the birth of the first school of tropical medicine in the United States.

In 1834, a group of young doctors founded a medical school dedicated to fighting the tropical diseases of the area. The young physicians issued a prospectus that emphasized the lack of knowledge of these infectious diseases and the necessity for studying them in the environment in which they occurred. That medical school became the Tulane University Health Sciences Center.

2005 marks the 100th anniversary of the last yellow fever outbreak in the United States. From 1834 until 1905, when the last yellow fever epidemic raged through the region, Tulane played an active role in studying the disease and caring for the sick.

Tulane faculty and students continue to provide both research and intervention for global health problems. Humanity still faces the threat of emerging infectious diseases as well as traditional enemies like tuberculosis and malaria. Tulane researchers continue that legacy as they study and treat malaria, SARS, hemorrhagic fevers and West Nile virus not only in Louisiana but across the globe. Tulane researchers work in projects from the jungles of Kenya to the tropics of South America. In the lab they work on isolating and identifying new viruses as well as finding novel ways to fight old enemies.

Donald Krogstad, chair of the department of tropical medicine and director of the Tulane Center for Infectious Diseases, is working on a new drug to fight malaria that exemplifies Tulane's dedication to the legacy of its founders. The drug, developed and tested at Tulane, is now human trials in Mali, West Africa.

The Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine was officially founded in 1912, funded in part by the United Fruit Company owned by New Orleans native Samuel Zemurray. Tropical medicine had been a strength at the Tulane medical school from the beginning, and Tulane remains the only university in the United States to offer a master of science in tropical medicine degree. The same year the school was founded, Tulane professor Charles Bass cultured the parasite that transmits malaria for the first time, cementing Tulane's leadership in the field of tropical medicine.

Global epidemics of the future, including emerging infectious diseases, will be discussed on Saturday, October 2 during a celebration of the 170th anniversary of the Tulane University Health Sciences Center. Speakers include Jaime Sepulveda Amor, director of the Mexican National Institutes of Health. Amor is an infectious disease expert who is presiding over the institutes as the health threats in Mexico transition from infectious disease to chronic diseases. He will be joined by John La Montagne, deputy director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, and Barry Popkin, professor of nutrition at the school of public health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

For more information about the 170th anniversary celebration, go to: http://alumni.hsc.tulane.edu/170th.html