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Brigadier John Sinton is the only individual in history to have been both awarded the Victoria Cross and also elected to the Royal Society. He qualified at Belfast and afterwards joined the Indian Medical Service (IMS). Serving before and during the Great War (1914-18), he was first posted to the North-West Frontier province, and afterwards as a captain in the Indian Expeditionary force in Mesopotamia (now Iraq). It was there in 1916 that, shot in both arms during an engagement and under heavy gunfire, he remained steadfastly at his post; for this bravery he received the Victoria Cross. Following the war he carried out major researches into malaria in India, and became Director of the Malaria Survey of India Both there and shortly afterwards, Sinton published about 200 papers on various aspects of malaria and leishmaniasis. In England, he later worked at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Ministry of Health's laboratory at Horton, Epsom. In 1946, he was elected to the Royal Society for his researches into malaria and kala-azar, and following retirement he underwent another distinguished career in Northern Ireland., (© The Author(s) 2014.)

From 1920 until 1939, London's Hospital for Tropical Diseases sponsored by the Seamen's Hospital Society was located at Endsleigh Gardens, Euston. Unfortunately, written records of that era were destroyed in air raids on Greenwich in 1940 and 1941. Oral reminiscences documented in this paper help remedy this loss., (© The Author(s) 2014.)

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, British physicians led the way in tropical medicine research. Several years later scientific advances had slowed, and Fairley's numerous contributions were thus most welcome. Neil Hamilton Fairley was born of Scottish parents at Victoria, Australia. After qualification at Melbourne, he joined the Australian Army Medical Service (AAMS) and after several minor research projects, made valuable contributions to the understanding of tropical sprue at Bombay (now Mumbai), India. However, Fairley's major researches were carried out during World War II (1939-45). Together with J S K Boyd he demonstrated the great value of sulphaguanidine in bacillary dysentery. Working in northern Australia and the south-Pacific region, he both contributed to elucidation of the Plasmodium vivax life-cycle, and more importantly demonstrated the value of alternative anti-malarial compounds to quinine (which was not readily available). Back in London after the war, Fairley briefly occupied the Wellcome Chair of Tropical Medicine, strongly supported London's clinical tropical medicine, and was subsequently knighted in 1950., (© The Author(s) 2014 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav.)

Dr. W.E. Cooke was not one of the most distinguished of tropical physicians, but the specialty was heavily dependent on his likes. After several junior appointments, he was Superintendent of the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in London. He carried out an extensive tour of Asia in 1929-1930 and kept careful daily notes throughout this period, giving a valuable insight into the challenges faced by the pioneering tropical physicians and surgeons from European countries.

Sir Leonard Rogers made enormous research contributions to 'medicine in the tropics', especially in Bengal where the spectrum of disease was already well delineated. He also did much to enhance the formal discipline of tropical medicine. But perhaps his most lasting memorial lies in the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine--that occupied a decade of politicking and stress--which survives to this day and is a timely reminder of a past era in India. It is not widely appreciated, however, that the original impetus for this institution came not from Rogers but from a young medical practitioner, Alfred McCabe-Dallas, attached to an Assam tea plantation.

Charles Wilberforce Daniels was a major pioneer in the early days of the newly-formed medical specialism--tropical medicine. At the London School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) of which he was a leading stalwart, he took an active part in research, teaching and administration. But like others in the new discipline he spent a great deal of time at various tropical locations: Fiji, British Guiana--where he made important observations on various forms of filariasis-- east Africa, and Malaya. However, his most important research contribution was arguably confirmation of Ronald Ross' 1898 discovery of the complete life-cycle of avian malaria, in Calcutta.

The London School of Tropical Medicine, and indeed the 'new' discipline of tropical medicine, originated in 1899 at the Albert Dock Hospital - situated in London's east-end. The founder of the discipline was Patrick Manson - with a great deal of political assistance from the British Secretary of State for the Colonies (Joseph Chamberlain). The hospital (originally opened in 1890) was rebuilt in 1937-1938 and ultimately demolished in 1993.

1999 marks the centenary of the two major British Schools of Tropical Medicine, founded in London and Liverpool, respectively. The origin(s) of the former clearly lies in the Seamen's Hospital Society, which dates from 1821. It seems likely that the foundation of this school (with Government support) also acted as a catalyst for the school at Liverpool, which in fact opened its doors a few months before that in London.

In the latter years of the nineteenth century, the 'Dreadnought' Seamen's Hospital (previously the Infirmary of the Greenwich Hospital) became London's centre of excellence for the healthcare of 'seamen of all nations' (many had 'tropical' and/or sexually-transmitted diseases); this followed a 50-year period (1821-1870) during which three successive hospital ships (anchored on Greenwich Reach) had been used for this purpose' (1). Numerous mariners 'afloat and ashore' therefore owed their lives (and good health) to the skill of the physicians and surgeons based there, but equally (and perhaps more) important was the care and devotion of the nursing staff (2).

Traditionally, many of the chemotherapeutic agents used in tropical medicine have possessed limited efficacy and serious adverse effects. This scenario has been revolutionised by the introduction into clinical parasitology of the benzimidazole compounds, praziquantel (and other schistosomicidal agents) and ivermectin for helminthiases, and the 5-nitroimidazoles for protozoan infections. An effective armamentarium against Plasmodium spp. infections, especially P. falciparum, is receding as widespread multiple drug resistance becomes commonplace. Although management of several more exotic parasitic infections, including trypanosomiasis, leishmaniasis and onchocerciasis remains unsatisfactory, several newer and relatively non-toxic preparations (including eflornithine and ivermectin) are now available, and offer optimism. However, there remains a very long way to go before a single preparation is available to combat all major protozoan and/or helminthic infections; such an agent would also need to be 100% effective when given as a single dose, safe not only in the healthy adult but also during pregnancy and lactation, stable at high ambient temperature and relatively low in cost.

George Carmichael Low, like so many early pioneers of Tropical Medicine, had his origin(s) in Scotland. Following a distinguished undergraduate (and early postgraduate) career, he joined Dr Patrick Manson at the newly established London School of Tropical Medicine in 1899. His first major contribution to the specialty (in 1900) was to demonstrate filariae in the proboscis sheath of mosquitoes which had been infected with Filaria bancrofti in Australia, using a technique recently learned in Heidelberg and Vienna. Shortly afterwards, he led an expedition to the Roman Campagna; this established beyond doubt mosquito-transmission of Plasmodium vivax infection to Homo sapiens. In 1901-1902, Low undertook a demanding tour of the Caribbean where he made important contributions to the understanding of the filariases, and assisted in malaria eradication. In 1902 he led a small team (the Royal Society's first sleeping sickness expedition) to investigate the 'negro lethargy' which had emerged in epidemic proportions on the northern shores of Lake Victoria in East Africa. This expedition narrowly failed to establish the aetiological agent (Trypanosoma sp.) of this disease. Following his return to London, Low became superintendent of the Albert Dock Hospital and from then onwards devoted most of his career to the London School of Tropical Medicine and the Hospital for Tropical Diseases (where he became senior physician). He wrote extensively, in addition to his clinical, teaching and administrative commitments. Perhaps Low's major contribution, however, was in establishing the Society (later Royal) of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in 1907, with Mr (later Sir) James Cantlie.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

The article reports on the health risks of traveling. It mentions some diseases that could be acquired from traveling to European and tropical countries which includes diarrhea, skin diseases and viral hepatitis. It emphasizes the importance of post-travel medical screening of travellers to address cases of diseases acquired through traveling.