In this brief video, tropical medicine faculty Dawn Wesson, PhD, explains how SPHTM was founded over a century ago when a group of physicians sought to protect New Orleans from Yellow Fever, and how that work carries on today in the Department of Tropical Medicine where a cross-cutting, interdisciplinary faculty work together to tackle diseases like Chagas, Dengue fever, and Malaria. Department faculty have extensive expertise in areas such as mosquito biology and biochemistry, medical and biochemical entomology, tropical virology, and population-based prevention and evaluation. Learn more about the Tropical Medicine Department.