There are no Knowledge Centres for this area
We are currently seeking suitable partners to assist in providing an educational Knowledge Centres for this section.
Click here to suggest a disease topic and/or partner
Tropical Medicine Topic Homepage
Tropical Medicine Overview
Tropical medicine is the specialty that encompasses the study and the treatment of diseases endemic to tropical and subtropical countries.
Malaria, tuberculosis (TB) and HIV are the three major tropical diseases, although there are many others emerging or remerging (avian influenza, chikungunya, West Nile virus, polio, leprosy, schistosomiasis, lymphatic filariasis and dracunculiasis).1
Malaria is the most...
... commonly imported tropical disease into the UK. Infection usually occurs during travel to endemic regions and is more prevalent in children than adults. This is most likely due to UK-born children accompanying parents to their native countries. The current treatment of malaria consists of a combination of several drugs2 because drug-resistant strains have emerged worldwide.3
TB is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis and primarily affects the lungs. Incidence is increasing substantially in developed countries; this has been attributed to an increase in latent TB in immigrants. In the UK between 1998 and 2009, reported cases of TB increased by 46% of which 98% was attributed to latent disease.4
HIV is a virus that infects the cells of the human immune system and is responsible for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).5 The number of newly infected HIV patents has declined by 19% worldwide since 1999.6 However, due to reduced mortality rates there has actually been an increase of people living with the disease. In Europe, this figure increased from 630,000 in 2001 to 820,000 in 2009.6
The increase in worldwide travel, and the evolution of drug-resistant microorganisms, has led to tropical diseases being major public health issue.
1. Soloman A.W. et al. Recent Advances in Tropical Medicine. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. July 2009 ; 103 (7) : 647-652.
2. Lalloo D.G. et al. UK Malaria Treatment Guidelines. Journal of Infection. February 2007 ; 54 (2) : 111-121.
3. Ashley E. et al. Malaria. Travel Medicine and Infectious Diseases. May-July 2006 ; 4 (3-4) : 159-173.
4. Pareek M. et al. Screening of Immigrants in the UK for Imported Latent Tuberculosis: A Multicentre Cohort Study and Cost Effectiveness Analysis. The Lancet Infectious Diseases. June 2011 ; 11 (6) : 435-444.
5. Beers M.H. et al. The Merck manual of medical information. Merck research laboratories. Second home edition. 2003 : 1168-1184.
6. World Health Organization. Global Report: UNAIDS Report on the Global Epidemic. Joint United Nation Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). 2010 : 18-62.
Content on this page
Advert for Healthcare Professionals only
Drug News
FDA issues Complete Response Letters for elvitegravir and cobicistat (Gilead Sciences)
01-05-2013Gilead Sciences, Inc. has announced that the company has received Complete Response Letters from the FDA for its New Drug Applications (NDAs) for elvitegravir and cobicistat for use as part of HIV...
CHMP recommends Stribild (Gilead Sciences) for the treatment of HIV
24-03-2013Gilead Sciences, Inc. has announced that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP), has adopted a positive opinion on the company's Marketing Authorisation Application (MAA) for the...
RTS,S Malaria Vaccine (GSK) disappoints
22-03-2013
The effectiveness of a Malaria Vaccine, RTS,S, developed by GlaxoSmithKline wanes over time, with the shot protecting only 16.8 percent of children over four years, according to trial data. The...
Tropical Medicine Drug Data - A-Z
Possible searches include drugs or medicines (by brand, generic ingredient or drug class), diseases, conditions and more.
Advert for Healthcare Professionals only
Recent Drug Updates
Omacor
13-06-2013Post Myocardial Infarction Adjuvant treatment in secondary prevention after myocardial infarction, in addition to other standard therapy (e.g. statins, anti-platelet medicinal products, ...
REYATAZ
12-06-2013REYATAZ is indicated for the treatment of HIV-1 infected adults in combination with other antiretroviral medicinal products. In antiretroviral treatment experienced patients, the demonstration of...
Aprovel Film-Coated Tablets (sanofi-aventis Bristol-Myers Squibb SNC)
14-05-2013Aprovel is indicated in adults for the treatment of essential hypertension. It is also indicated for the treatment of renal disease in adult patients with hypertension and type 2 diabetes mellitus...
Clinical Guidelines
Guidelines for the Treatment of Malaria
Jul 1905Malaria case management remains a vital component of the malaria control strategies. This entails..
... early diagnosis and prompt treatment with effective antimalarial medicines. The WHO Guidelines for the treatment of malaria, which were first published in 2006, provide global, evidence-based recommendations on the case management of malaria, targeted mainly at policy-makers at country level, providing a framework for the development of specific and more detailed national treatment protocols that take into account local antimalarial drug resistance patterns and health service capacity in the country. This second edition of the guidelines revisits the recommendations based on updated evidence. The same presentation format from the first edition has been mainly kept based on feedback from the end-users.
UK malaria treatment guidelines
Jun 1905Management of malaria depends on awareness of the diagnosis and on performing the correct diagnostic..
... tests: the diagnosis cannot be excluded until 3 blood specimens have been examined by an experienced microscopist. There are no typical clinical features of malaria, even fever is not invariably present. The optimum diagnostic procedure is examination of thick and thin blood films by an expert to detect and speciate the malarial parasites; P. falciparum malaria can be diagnosed almost as accurately using rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) which detect plasmodial antigens or enzymes, although RDTs for other Plasmodium species are not as reliable.
Clinical Trials
Phase Ia Study of ChAd63/MVA PvDBP
13-03-2013This is an open label phase Ia study, to assess the safety of two novel malaria vaccines, ChAd63 PvDBP, with or without MVA PvDBP. Heterologous prime-boost with ChAd63-MVA is, to our knowledge, one of the most potent T cell-inducing subunit vaccine regimens which can importantly also induce antibodies. Previous..
... clinical trials using this regimen expressing ME-TRAP, AMA1 & MSP1, have shown that administering ChAd63 as a prime followed 8 weeks later by MVA as a boost is a very immunogenic schedule (32-34). For this reason, and to provide comparability with previous ChAd63-MVA trials, we propose to use a similar administration schedule.
ICCM of Common Childhood Diseases: Mozambique and Uganda (inSCALE)
07-03-2013The aim of the inSCALE project is to test the effect of innovative approaches to increase coverage of integrated community case management, which provides community based-care for diarrhoea, pneumonia and malaria, resulting in more children receiving timely and appropriate care for these three most common childhood..
... illnesses
Medical Videos
Medical Journal Abstracts
Clinical profile, treatment response, and outcome of HIV-TB co-infected children
Pediatric Infectious Disease
Feb 2013
Background: We studied the clinical presentation, treatment response and outcome in children with HIV-TB co-infection, registered at PCOE, Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health, Bangalore. Methods: All 590 HIV infected children registered at our center were evaluated for TB infection. Information on TB was collected..
Hepatitis B Screening in US Travelers Seen at the Boston Area Travel Medicine Network
Journal of Travel Medicine
Dec 2012
Background: Persons born in countries with hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) prevalence ≥2% have increased risk for unrecognized hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Testing at pre-travel consultations is a strategy to identify previously undiagnosed HBV infections. Using records of travelers seen at the Boston Area..
Social Media
Medical myths in your specialty
on doc2doc... your specialty Some good examples respected Tim. To add further, 1) 'Malaria is diagnosed by blood tests only', 2) 'Do not have a bath during fever ...
Win free entry to TEDMEDLive at Imperial College London! Just answer this question...
on doc2doc... situation, the HIV virus almost inevitably progresses to AIDS for those who are infected, but yet more recently a child born with HIV, in Mississippi ...
Is austerity good for health?
on doc2doc... illness has proliferated, Infectious diseases are increasing (HIV among drug users in Greece has gone up TWENTY times in two years), there have ...
Advert for Healthcare Professionals only