Tropical disease

Under tropical diseases means all diseases that occur only or mainly in the tropics. In practice, this is usually understood as all infectious diseases in humans, the pathogens or carriers of which occur primarily in tropical or subtropical areas. This spread is due to both climatic and environmental and / or socio-economic conditions, which are increasingly found in tropical developing countries. As a group of diseases, they are the main field of activity in tropical medicine .

Overview

In general, factors that have become rare in temperate, industrialized zones, such as poor hygiene, malnutrition and respiratory diseases, are responsible for a large part of the high morbidity and high early mortality, which the WHO has prompted for a large number of programs to improve these circumstances.

Diseases

Depending on the definition and source, there are different details about the number and identity of the individual tropical diseases. As an example, here is an overview of some of the most common:

African trypanosomiasis (African sleeping sickness)
Leishmaniasis
Onchocerciasis (river blindness)
(lymphatic) filariasis (see also elephantiasis )
Schistosomiasis (schistosomiasis)
Dengue fever
Ebola fever

Some of the diseases that are now (depending on the source) regarded as tropical diseases were previously common in Europe and globally, for example plague , cholera , leprosy and malaria . As a counter-trend, due to the long-term changes in habitats taking place in the context of climate change, as well as increased travel and goods traffic, carriers of tropical diseases, especially mosquitoes such as the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus), are spreading in Germany . The pathogens they transmit, such as the West Nile virus and the Zika virus, spread through these vectors .

The WHO has defined neglected tropical diseases as a further category . This list currently contains 20 entries in the form of various health hazards and was last updated in 2017 by adding chromoblastomycosis and other deep mycoses, scabies and other ectoparasites, as well as poisoning from snake bites (see also Neglected Diseases ).

literature

Grüntzig, Johannes W .; Mehlhorn, Heinz: Expeditions into the realm of epidemics - medical ascension orders of the German imperial and colonial times . 379 pages, 176 b / w ill., 126 col. Ill., Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-8274-1622-1 .
François-Paul Blanc and Bernard Blanc: History of Tropical Diseases. In: Illustrated History of Medicine. German arrangement by Richard Toellner a. a., special edition Salzburg 1986, Volume V, pp. 2538-2577.

Web links

Wikivoyage: Tropical Diseases Guide

Wiktionary: Tropical disease - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

↑ WHO | Tropical diseases. Retrieved June 16, 2019 .
↑ ^a ^b ^c Pschyrembel, Willibald., Hildebrandt, Helmut., Dornblüth, Otto .: Pschyrembel Clinical Dictionary: with 2339 figures and 268 tables . 257., revised. Ed. De Gruyter, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-11-012692-3 .
↑ TDR | Global Engagement: Promoting innovative and inclusive approaches to research. Retrieved June 16, 2019 .
^ Deutscher Ärzteverlag GmbH, editorial office of the Deutsches Ärzteblatt: New infectious diseases threaten blood security. May 16, 2019, accessed June 16, 2019 .
↑ WHO | World Health Organization. Retrieved June 16, 2019 .

[1] WHO | Tropical diseases. Retrieved June 16, 2019 .

[:0-2] Pschyrembel, Willibald., Hildebrandt, Helmut., Dornblüth, Otto .: Pschyrembel Clinical Dictionary: with 2339 figures and 268 tables . 257., revised. Ed. De Gruyter, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-11-012692-3 .

[3] TDR | Global Engagement: Promoting innovative and inclusive approaches to research. Retrieved June 16, 2019 .

[4] Deutscher Ärzteverlag GmbH, editorial office of the Deutsches Ärzteblatt: New infectious diseases threaten blood security. May 16, 2019, accessed June 16, 2019 .

[5] WHO | World Health Organization. Retrieved June 16, 2019 .