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A few
years ago it was lively debated whether it is appropriate and sensible
to maintain institutes for tropical medicine in the industrialized
world of moderate climates. Of course, countries in the endemic regions
of tropical diseases must be given every support to do medical research
and product marketing on their own. All the more as the World Bank
assesses that national development cannot succeed without national
research endeavours, and be it only to keep the talent in the country.
And there appears no field of research better suited than diseases
prevailing in the local population.
On the other side, biomedical research has developed into a costly
high-technology undertaking, and a number of roadblocks at present
prevent a broader implementation in low-income countries. This cannot
mean that populations of low-income nations not only suffer from
collective poverty but also from diseases - due to failing research
activities in their part of the world. For institutes of tropical
medicine in industrialized countries, this implies a clear mandate to
do high-technology research.
It slowly is being realised that financing tropical-disease research is
by no means altruistic. Poverty-related diseases make poorer, and
poverty is considered one of the major threats to peace worldwide. Not
to forget national reputations in emerging economies. What is new is
that the tropical diseases themselves are getting closer. Be it due to
globalisation or climate change, West-Nile virus has taken over the USA
in 2004, Chikungunya virus emerged in Italy in 2007, and its vector,
"tiger mosquito" Aedes albopictus, moved into the Upper Rhine valley by
2008. New challenges are arising.
Over more than a hundred years, Germany´s largest and most
renowned institute for tropical diseases, the Bernhard Nocht Institute
for Tropical Medicine, has made historic contributions to the control
of communicable diseases and emerging infections. Its members feel
obliged by the great tradition and are prepared to meet the challenges
of the future.
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