Public policy and advocacy represent a key fourth component of the mission of the Baylor College of Medicine National School of Tropical Medicine. NSTM and its faculty have a distinguished track record of raising awareness about the importance of neglected tropical diseases both overseas and within the United States and have organized high profile conferences and panels, as well as helped to formulate public policy on Capitol Hill, in the UK Parliament, and in the Texas State Legislature. NSTM collaborates with key public policy organizations in Houston and in Texas including the Baylor Healthcare Policy Institute, James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, the Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs, Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University, and The Academy of Medicine, Engineering, and Science of Texas.
Neglected Disease Advocacy
NSTM faculty advocate increased awareness, education, and allocation of resources to fight neglected tropical diseases and neglected infections of poverty and effect their reduction, elimination, and eradication. View related publications:
- Global “worming”: Climate change and its projected general impact on human helminth infections
- Female genital schistosomiasis and HIV/AIDS: Reversing the neglect of girls and women
- Blue Marble Health Redux: Neglected Tropical Diseases and Human Development in the Group of 20 (G20) Nations and Nigeria
- Neglected Parasitic Infections and Poverty in the United States
- Old World Cutaneous Leishmaniasis and Refugee Crises in the Middle East and North Africa
Vaccine Hesitancy and Anti-Science in Texas and the United States
Led by Dr. Hotez, NSTM faculty advocate increased education around vaccines and communication of science in the United States and here in Texas. View related publications and media coverage:
Science Diplomacy
NSTM leaders advocate cooperation among scientific communities from other countries, including those countries with whom the U.S. does not have entirely good relations, in order to maximize scientific efforts through cooperation. Among other projects NSTM partners with University of Malaya and King Saud University for capacity building and training in the area of vaccine development. View related publications:
- Science tikkun: A framework embracing the right of access to innovation and translational medicine on a global scale
- Vaccine Science Diplomacy: Expanding Capacity to Prevent Diseases Arising from Islamic State (IS)–Held Territories
- Blue Marble Health: An Innovative Plan to Fight Diseases of the Poor amid Wealth
- “Vaccine Diplomacy”: Historical Perspectives and Future Directions
- The NTDs and Vaccine Diplomacy in Latin America: Opportunities for United States Foreign Policy
Zika and Emerging Infectious Diseases
NSTM Faculty are authorities on disease outbreaks including Zika, West Nile, yellow fever, and others, and are important sources of information in the scientific community as well as to local, national, and global audiences regarding new and emerging infectious diseases.
- Neglected Tropical Diseases in the Anthropocene: The Cases of Zika, Ebola, and Other Infections
- Zika in the United States of America and a Fateful 1969 Decision
- 2017 Global Infectious Diseases Threats to the United States
- What Does Zika Virus Mean for the Children of the Americas
- What’s with these Vector-borne Neglected Tropical Diseases?
Open Access
NSTM advocates the open-access model of scholarly publishing to facilitate scientific discovery. Faculty make an effort to have their scholarly research published through open access; in addition, Dr. Hotez is editor-in-chief of Public Library of Science NTDs, the first open-access journal dedicated to neglected tropical diseases.
Publications
To see a complete listing of Dr. Hotez' peer-reviewed publications, go to his My NCBI page.
Dr. Peter Hotez explains the concept of Blue Marble Health
Dr. Hotez testifies in Congress regarding the Zika virus
Free CME Activity
A Zika Virus Baylor CME activity is now available at no charge. This activity is approved for 1.0 hours of AMA PRA Category I credit.