Baylor College of Medicine is a health sciences university that creates knowledge and applies science and discoveries to further education, healthcare and community service locally and globally.

Tropical medicine is the study of the world’s major tropical diseases and related conditions, which include a group of 17 neglected tropical diseases (sometimes referred to as ‘NTDs’) such as hookworm infection, schistosomiasis, river blindness, elephantiasis, trachoma, Chagas disease, Buruli ulcer, and leishmaniasis, as well as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. The field also includes related disorders in malnutrition and even some non-communicable diseases.

The National School of Tropical Medicine (NSTM) at Baylor College of Medicine is the only school of tropical medicine in the United States solely committed to addressing the world’s most pressing tropical diseases that disproportionately afflict “the bottom billion,” the world’s poorest people who live below the World Bank poverty level.

NSTM has a nationally and internationally recognized robust educational programs focused on Neglected Tropical Diseases and Infections of Poverty. Together with faculty from the Section of Pediatric Tropical Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics and faculty from other key departments, centers and schools within Baylor College of Medicine and the Texas Medical Center, the school continues to build infrastructure capacity for education focused on Neglected Tropical Diseases and Infections of Poverty in the United States and globally.