Travel Medicine in Global Health

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Investigator: Mary Wilson, MD

Location(s): Brazil; Haiti

Description

The determinants of the distribution of infectious diseases historically and geographically continue to be a source of fascination and study. This meshes with work on emerging infectious diseases, which requires a broad understanding of the factors that influence the appearance, recognition, dissemination, frequency and disappearance of infectious diseases in an area or population. Professor Wilson edited, with Richard Levins and Andrew Spielman, Disease in Evolution: Global Changes and Emergence of Infectious Diseases, a book based on a multidisciplinary workshop on emerging diseases held at Woods Hole in 1993. The book was published by the New York Academy of Sciences in 1994.

Professor Wilson teaches a course on the geography of infectious diseases and has looked at the ways population size, location, density, mobility, and vulnerability as well as environmental changes influence patterns of infectious diseases.

Professor Wilson has long been interested in infections in travelers and immigrants has studied the role of migration and trade in the appearance and expression of infectious diseases. Other interests include tuberculosis and use of vaccines, especially in travelers.