David Harry Smith

Head of the division of tropical medicine, Liverpool (b 1936; q King's 1960; FRCP), died from cancer of the lung on 30 May 2000. He started his career in tropical medicine as a registrar at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in 1965, moving to the School of Tropical Medicine in Liverpool in 1967 where he remained until he died. Believing that the school's impact on the tropics must be in the tropics he undertook numerous secondments overseas, including to Papua New Guinea and Kenya where he established a clinical unit for investigating and treating tropical parasite diseases, clinical research, and chemotherapy trials. His consultancies took him to many countries in South America, Africa, and India. In 1976 in southern Sudan, he investigated the first outbreak of Ebola haemorrhagic fever, which was responsible for a case fatality of over 50%. From 1985 to 1993 he was the technical adviser and project manager of the Overseas Development Administration's human trypanosomiasis programme in Uganda. He was a specialist adviser to the malaria consortium programme to promote malaria control strategies.

David was at his best when working in the tropics. It was here that his knowledge, leadership, compassion, and personality flourished. He was an acknowledged expert on arboviruses, malaria, visceral leishmaniasis, and African trypanosomiasis, but to get him to put pen to paper to publish in scientific journals was an effort. Fortunately, he imparted his knowledge to a generation of postgraduate students and in chapters in textbooks. Despite his teaching, overseas, and research activities David had boundless energy and took an active part in the administration of the school. He was vice president of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. He leaves a wife, Margaret; a son (also a doctor); and a daughter.

Francis John Hallinan

Former area medical officer Monmouthshire and …