"Travel Bug" gets around

The Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine communications department introduced a traveling stuffed mosquito to promote awareness of the school's centennial. Students, faculty and staff members took along the “Travel Bug” during summer travel for practica, education, research or leisure.

The mosquito was a natural mascot because the school's roots are founded on combatting diseases spread by various species of mosquitoes, and much of the global work the school does today is still grounded in tropical medicine and vector-borne diseases. The “Travel Bug” touched down in at least 15 different worldwide locations ranging from Avery Island, La., to Taipei, Taiwan, and from Bloomington, Minn., to Poznan, Poland. So far, the mosquito with the centennial banner has traveled more than 44,000 miles and snapshots continue to pour in. The School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine will celebrate the 100th anniversary of its founding this fall.



Prescott Deininger, a faculty member in the epidemiology department, captured a shot of the “Travel Bug” reflecting on her journey while looking over the Hudson River in New York.



Alexis Ruffino, alumni affairs coordinator in the dean's office, snapped a photo of the “Travel Bug” making friends with a woman who sings in a band in St. James, Barbados.



The “Travel Bug” helps out a health camp in Hile, Nepal, with MD/MPH student Kaitlyn Hardin (center, holding the "Travel Bug") and her buddies.



Mallory Gill, a student studying global community health and behavioral sciences, captured the “Travel Bug” stopping for a moment of rest from her global journey on a building's ledge in Taipei, Taiwan.



The “Travel Bug” reflects on freedom and democracy at the nation's capital in this shot taken by Sumrita Binda, a student in the epidemiology/maternal and child health program.

Dee Boling is director of communications for the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.