![]() ![]() ![]() Over the last one hundred years we’ve had limited advances in research and treatment.” “That’s where Tropical Medicine was born, and that’s where a lot of our knowledge came from. “There was a certain amount of investment in treatment and cures when British colonials were getting sick,” Caplivski said. Caplivski, director of the Travel Medicine program at New York’s Mount Sinai Medical Center, explained that the “neglected” status of many parasitic infections is largely a result of history and economics. Some of these infectionssuch as leishmaniasis, lymphatic filariasis, schistosomiasis, and soil-transmitted helminth infectionsare termed “neglected tropical diseases.”ĭr. Parasitic infections are one focus of Tropical Medicine (also called Travel Medicine), an Infectious Disease subspecialty with a history intertwined with war and colonization. In still others, the years without detection can create a tragedy. In some cases, once they are, a cure can be quick and uncomplicated. Although the parasites may be hidden, they can be detected. These insidious stowaways find human hosts through soil, water, food, or airborne “vectors”insects such as mosquitoes and sand flies. Veterans of all wars must contend with exotic parasites. In this article, health writer Claudia Gary examines the dangers to which American men and women serving in Indochina and the Middle East may have been unwittingly exposed. Then, in 1999, George Duggins, who served as president from 1997-2001, worked with Bob Maras, who chaired the Veterans Affairs Committee, to convince the VA Undersecretary for Health to incorporate these concerns into a curriculum on parasites and diseases of Southeast Asia as part of the VA’s Veterans Health Initiative. VVA continued pushing the VA on this issue. VVA first expressed concern in 1981, led by Lynda Van Devanter. The parasites and diseases of Southeast Asiamost of which are unknown to American physicianshave long worried Vietnam Veterans of America. ![]()
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