Social science and the complexity of tropical medicine

Abstract

In the name of biomedicine, humankind has witnessed incredible advances in causative agents, life cycles, treatment, and prevention of many population-crushing parasitic, bacterial, and viral infections such as Malaria, Typhoid, and Yellow Fever. Originally designed to protect imperial troops in tropical climates from maladies previously unknown in the fatherland, the now anachronistic term "tropical medicine" attempts to capture the interplay of local culture, poverty, and the environment - areas where biomedicine encounters major limitations. The existence of the thirteen "Neglected Tropical Diseases" (NTDs) responsible for disabling conditions that mostly affect the world's poorest populations, are a testament to the shortcomings of biomedically-driven tropical medicine.

Keywords

• Tropical medicine
• biomedicine
• social science