tropical disease

Any illness found mainly in hot climates. The most significant tropical diseases worldwide are malaria, leishmaniasis, sleeping sickness, lymphatic filiarasis, and schistosomiasis. Other major scourges are Chagas's disease, leprosy, and river blindness. Malaria kills about 1.5 million people each year, and produces chronic anaemia and tiredness in 100 times as many, while schistosomiasis is responsible for 1 million deaths a year. All the main tropical diseases are potentially curable, but the facilities for diagnosis and treatment are rarely adequate in the countries where they occur.