BMJ 1996;312:247-248 (27 January)

Letters

Tropical medicine should become specialty of "health in developing countries"

EDITOR,--In their article on the future of tropical medicine Kevin M De Cock and colleagues point out that Northern perspectives of tropical medicine are rooted in the past, with a heavy emphasis on parasitic and other infectious diseases.1 They believe that tropical medicine should now focus on the health problems of poor societies living in areas with a warm climate, where poverty rather than parasitic disease is the dominating influence. They also comment that traditional tropical medicine has ignored the burden of non-infectious disease and mention diseases related to tobacco, maternal mortality, and road accidents as important problems. Rightly, they believe that there should be emphasis on how to provide clinical services in resource poor settings.

Despite these comments they suggest that the discipline of tropical medicine in Europe should be absorbed into infectious diseases. This will help in terms of important health problems such as tuberculosis, AIDS, and common . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

Future of tropical medicine
G C Cook
BMJ 1996 312: 1160. [Extract] [Full Text]

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