​Dr. Vincenzo Marcolongo Lecture

The Marcolongo Lecture honors Vincenzo Marcolongo (1922–1988), founder of IAMAT -International Association for Medical Assistance to Travellers. A graduate of the medical school at the University of Rome, Dr. Marcolongo did his postgraduate training at McGill University in Montreal and returned to Italy to obtain his doctorate in tropical medicine.

Dr. Marcolongo made the health needs of travelers his life’s work. Of particular interest to him was malaria and preventing the unnecessary morbidity and mortality it causes among travelers.
In an era of increasing international travel, he realized that there was a need for collaboration among medical practitioners around the world to help travelers. In 1960 he founded IAMAT, a non-profit organization that awards scholarships to doctors and nurses from countries where travel medicine is an emerging practice.

Through IAMAT, Dr. Marcolongo worked tirelessly to inform travelers of health risks and raise awareness of travelers’ health among travel industry professionals and medical practitioners worldwide. His foresight, compassion and generosity continue to serve as inspiration for IAMAT’s work.

In his own words: “The need for peace and understanding between the peoples of the world has never been as great as now. Peace can come only with understanding, and travel is an important means of acquiring it. It is, however, only through the full consciousness of ‘the essence of the human’ that we shall be able to open the difficult paths of international relationships. As a traveler you have an excellent opportunity to serve your country and the world in creating ties of friendship. To you, therefore, we bring this message, a message sparked with beauty all its own: ‘The search for the human’."

The Marcolongo Lecture was instituted in 1990; the list of speakers follows.

2024 Schistosomiasis: Insights into Immunology and Treatment from Human Challenge Studies   Meta Roestenberg, Leiden University, Netherlands
2023 Dengue: The Latest in Vaccines and Other Prevention Tools   Gabriela Paz-Bailey, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases
2022 Practical Aspects of Travelers' Diarrhea for the Clinician   Mark Riddle, Pfizer Vaccines, United States
2021 Leprosy: An Ongoing Clinical Challenge   Pedro Legua, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru
2020
 
Tuberculosis: Update and Current Challenges
 
  Soumya Swaminathan, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland
2019 The Provision of Safe Water in Complex Environments   Robert Handby, Australian Red Cross (Retired)
 
2018              Environmental Disease in Tropical Regions   David Christiani
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
 
2017 Vibrio cholera: Lessons from Haiti and its pending research agenda Claudio F. Lanata, Instituto de Investigacion Nutricional, Lima, Peru
2016 Leptospirosis in the Tropics: The Diagnostic Challenge Suneth Agampodi, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka, Saliyapura, Sri Lanka
 
2015
 
The Clinical Fascination of Snake-Bite World Wide
 
  David A. Warrell
2014 Paraccocidiodomycosis: A Neglected Mycosis of Latin America
 
  Carlos Seas
2013 Management of Tegumentary Leishmaniasis: Lessons from Studies on Pathogenesis of Leishmania braziliensis Infection
 
  Edgar Carvalho
2012 Gallbladder Carriage of Salmonella: From Chile to Nepal
 
  Buddha Basnyat
2011 Prevention of Mother To Child Transmission of HIV Infection and HIV Free Survival: Perspectives From Resource Limited Settings
 
  Frederick Sawe

2010

Neonatal Infections- A Global Perspective 

 

Anita K.M. Zaidi

2009 Paradigm Shifts in Tuberculosis Drug Susceptibility Testing: New Dos and Don'ts
 
 

David Moore

2008 Understanding Neurocysticercosis: Advances in the Last 50 Years
 
 

Raul Isturiz

2007 Human African Trypanosomiasis: A Neglected Diseasse with Low Prevalence but High Impact
 
 

Christian Burri

2006 Severe Malaria: a Moving Target?  

Kevin Marsh

2005 Cystic Echinococcosis: to Treat or not to Treat?
 
 

Enrico Brunetti

2004 Human African Trypanosomiasis: The Past Explains the Present and is the Key to the Future
 
 

Jacques Pepin

2003 Japanese Encephalitis: West Nile's Ugly Sister
 
 

Tom Solomon

2002 Melioidosis: The Peril in the Paddy Fields  

David Dance

2001 Leishmaniasis in the Sudan  

Edward Zijlstra

2000 Leptospirosis, the Hide and Seek Disease  

Solly Faine

1999 Malaria Prophylaxis: A New Approach  

Eli Schwartz

1998 Puerto Rico Meeting Canceled (Hurricane)  

 

1997 Clinical Features & Epidemiology of Tick-Borne Encephalitis in Central and Eastern Europe
 
 

M. Roggendorg

1996 An Infectious Disease Specialist in Hait: AIDS, Typhoid Fever and Civil Unrest
 
 

Jean Pape

1995 Tuberculosis: Developments in Epidemiology, Diagnosis, Treatment and Prevention
 
 

JJ Ellner

1994 Management of Severe and Complicated Malaria
 
 

Nick White

1993 Human Rabies: Clinical Features, Pathogenesis and Potential Treatment
 
 

Thiravat Hemauchuda

1992 HIV and Opportunistic Infections in Northeastern Brazil  

Anastacio de Queiroz Sousa

1991 Tropical Dermatology  

Anthony Bryceson

1990 Radiological Aspects of Tropical and Parasitic Disease
 
 

Michael Reeder

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