Back to the Future: The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Its Journal and the Continuing Commitment to Global Health

Abstract

These are exciting and challenging times in the world of global health. The burden of major infectious diseases that disproportionately affect the health of women and children in low- and middle-income countries can, in some circumstances, be reduced substantially by implementing scientifically validated and evidence-based public health interventions, e.g., vaccination for diarrheal disease caused by rotavirus infection, insecticide-treated bed nets for malaria. Global efforts have been implemented that in the foreseeable future have as their stated goal local geographic elimination and ultimately, worldwide eradication of pathogens that historically have caused great suffering and socioeconomic loss in low- and middle-income countries. The paper by Linehan and colleagues 1 in this issue of the AJTMH demonstrating the feasibility of an integrated approach to the elimination or control of five “Neglected Tropical Diseases,” lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, soil-transmitted helminthiases, and blinding trachoma, is an outstanding example of how years of basic and clinical research can be translated into locally led national programs that make a real difference in the lives of people in developing countries. At the same time that these ambitious programs are unfolding, the underlying causes and demographics of ill health in the world are changing. Obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, once uncommon (or unrecognized) among poor people in developing countries, are increasingly common, especially in the megacities of Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Building on the prominence of “Global Health” at the November 2010 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, the Society’s Journal will address global health education, research, and advocacy throughout the 2011 issues. Each month a global health article will be highlighted in the AJTMH . We welcome and will solicit perspectives and research papers on topics that pertain to global health advocacy, the metrics of competence in specific areas of global health education, health economics, collaborations that bridge infectious and chronic disease, and model public–private partnerships in developing countries. 2