In 1834, a group of young New Orleans physicians gathered together to start a medical college in a region that was a hotspot for malaria, cholera, smallpox, yellow fever and other infectious diseases. Their work anchors a timeline compiled by Tulane’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine documenting how New Orleans became a focal point for the fight against a wide range of health threats, many that continue to cause enormous suffering around the world.  

Now, almost 200 years later, New Orleans will add another chapter to this legacy as it hosts the 2024 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, November 13-17. Science writer and TropMed Blogger Matthew Davis, along with Scientific Program Chair David Hamer, MD, and Associate Program Chair Kristy Murray, MD, DVM, have pored over hundreds of abstracts and speaker selections to provide a small taste of what to expect when TropMed24 arrives in the Big Easy.  

In the Land of Mardi Gras, a Carnival of Keynotes: A particularly rich slate of speakers starts with an opening keynote Wednesday from Monique Wasunna. She’s Africa ambassador for the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) and former chief research officer at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI). Dr. Wasunna is one of those rare scientists equally comfortable leading clinical trials against neglected diseases like visceral leishmaniasis and advising political leaders about specific investments in medical innovation that will support health equity. Read her commentary from 2023 in The Conversation about why she finds hope in pairing  “African political leadership with scientific excellence.”  

Other marquee speakers include: the Commemorative Lecture on Friday by Jean W. Pape, director of Haiti’s GHESKIO health centers. Dr. Pape is a central figure in the country’s struggles against cholera, HIV and now gang violence. Paulin Basinga, Africa director for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, who also served as a senior adviser to the Rwanda Biomedical Center, will deliver a closing keynote Sunday. Jean-Jacques Muyembe of the National Institute of Biomedical Research in the Democratic Republic of the Congo will deliver the Charles Franklin Craig Lecture on Thursday, reflecting on lessons learned from decades of work with Ebola and mpox outbreaks. Saturday’s President’s Address from ASTMH President Linnie Golightly, Associate Dean of Diversity and Inclusion and Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine, Microbiology & Immunology at Weill Cornell Medicine, will bring perspectives from the past to inform the future of global health.

Mpox, Avian Flu Experts Probe Pandemic Threats: On Friday, researchers nervously tracking avian influenza’s journey from birds to cows to humans will explore whether, as they note in their symposium summary, this is all a pandemic waiting to happen. An mpox symposium Saturday will focus on the recent surge of infections in sub-Saharan Africa and the emergence of an especially dangerous strain that prompted WHO to declare a public health emergency of international concern.  

U.S. Threat from Chagas Disease: Saturday, experts in this neglected parasitic disease — primarily spread by insects known as kissing bugs — will present new evidence for a potentially growing presence in the continental United States, including assessments of risks in California, South Carolina, Louisiana, Arizona and Texas. 

Malaria Trio — Playing a Song the Parasite Can’t Resist: A symposium Thursday will consider new evidence regarding the spread of artemisinin resistance in sub-Saharan Africa — and also present results from clinical trials testing a novel way to preserve the power of this essential malaria drug. While administering artemisinin with a second “partner” drug is no longer sufficient to avoid resistance, adding a third medication to the mix could do the job. But while the solution seems simple, implementing the approach at scale is not.  

Why Bats Keep Going Viral: What do SARS, Ebola, Hendra, Nipah and rabies viruses have in common? They all can be carried by bats, and bats are a primary conduit for their spillover into humans. A symposium Friday on bat virus spillover risks will include new evidence linking bats to Nipah virus transmission in Bangladesh. Scientists also will preview an ambitious research collection that promises to be the bible of bat virus spillover risks.  

Exploring Louisiana’s Leprosy-Fighting Legacy and Risks from Armadillos: New Orleans is a perfect place for Thursday’s leprosy symposium, which will direct much-needed attention to modern day risks from an ancient, disfiguring bacterial infection that is also known as Hansen’s disease. Until 2005, Baton Rouge, Louisiana (about 80 miles from New Orleans), was home to the only leprosarium in the continental United States. Also, it was in 2011 that researchers at Louisiana State published new evidence that armadillos provide a large natural reservoir of leprosy.   

Long Ebola: A symposium Saturday will provide new findings from recent studies of Ebola survivors, including reduced neurocognitive functions and chronic cardiopulmonary dysfunction. With some 20,000 Ebola survivors globally, studies of the disease’s lingering health impacts are of growing interest in the context of improvements in lifesaving treatments. 

Finally, 2024 will go down in history as a record year for dengue infections. In our next post, we’ll focus on the many sessions at #TropMed24 that will shed light on this alarming development — and efforts to advance new tools to fight it.