A disease which is found in tropical countries, e.g. malaria, dengue or Lassa fever.
Technically, those diseases occurring in the area of the globe situated between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn: pertaining to the sun. They include many ‘exotic’ infections many of them parasitic in origin. However, disease in the tropics is far broader than this and includes numerous other infections, many of them with a viral or bacterial basis: for example, viral hepatitis, infection with streptococcus or pneumococcus, and tuberculosis. The prevalence of other diseases, such as rheumatic cardiac disease, cirthosis, heptocellular carcinoma (‘hepatoma), and various nutrition-related problems, is also much increased in most areas of the tropics. With people from developed countries increasingly travelling to worldwide destinations for business and holiday, the ‘importation’ of tropical diseases to temperate climates should be borne in mind when people fall ill.
Numerous diseases common in tropical regions are mainly due to overcrowding and poor nutrition. Malnutrition is a leading cause of sickness in these areas. Besides causing nutritional deficiencies, an inadequate diet also compromises the body’s capacity to combat infectious diseases like measles, diphtheria, and tuberculosis.
The absence of proper sanitation, leading to water and soil being contaminated by human waste, is responsible for various diseases. These include typhoid fever, shigellosis, cholera, amoebiasis, as well as nematode and tapeworm infections.
In the tropics, insects are vectors for transmitting diseases like malaria, yellow fever, sleeping sickness, and leishmaniasis. Additionally, intense tropical sunlight elevates the risk of skin cancer in individuals with lighter skin tones. This sunlight can also harm the external eye tissues, causing conditions such as pinguecula and pterygium.