Euan Scrimgeour

Dr Euan Scrimgeour graduated from St Andrews University in 1962,  and after junior posts in Scotland, spent 3 years in general practice in Perth, Western Australia.  In 1970-1971 he completed the 6-month full-time Diploma course in Tropical Medicine in the University of Edinburgh obtaining the DTM&H. On return to Perth, he worked as a Medical Registrar in RPH and SCGH, obtaining the MRACP in 1973. Deciding to specialize in Tropical and Infectious Diseases, initially  he obtained  teaching and research posts in Papua New Guinea (1977-1982) and Tanzania (1979). In 1985-1986, he spent a year as Visiting Scientist, in the National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda, Maryland, researching prion diseases and schistosomiasis of the CNS. Subsequently, he  obtained academic posts in Zimbabwe (1987-1989), Saudi Arabia (1991-1993), and the Sultanate of Oman, (1994-2006).  In the Medical School in Sultan Qaboos University in Muscat, where he was the Head of the Tropical and Infectious Diseases Unit, he introduced and conducted  a 6-month part-time course in Tropical and Infectious Diseases for small groups of  young Omani doctors.  Between 1996 and 2006, 37  Omani doctors obtained the  DTM&H  qualification in the annual open examination in London. The Oman School of  Tropical Medicine was accredited by the Royal College of Physicians  of London as the ‘’only School of  Tropical Medicine  outside the UK, that provided appropriate training for the London  examination.’’  

Among other responsibilities in Oman, he was Chairman of the University Hospital Infection Control Committee, and Chairman of the Antibiotic Committee.

During most of his 11 years in Oman,  Dr Scrimgeour was the only Infectious Diseases (Adult Medicine)  consultant in the country (with a population of over 2 million).   As a consequence, he was appointed by the Department of  Health of the Sultanate of Oman as a consultant advising National Policies and Disease Control in numerous  areas including schistosomiasis, leishmaniasis,   filariasis,  leprosy and tuberculosis, poliomyelitis,  viral haemorrhagic fever, viral hepatitis,  and AIDS and also prion diseases (CJD and BSE).  Ihe wrote the first National Policy for control of viral haemorrhagic fever, and participated in the National Policy for HIV infection/AIDS.  From 1997 to 2006,  he was a Member of the Oman  National Poliomyelitis  team  reporting to the World Health  Organization.

His research interests are Tropical and Infectious Diseases,  also Tropical Neurology, and he has published 104 papers  between 1969-2012. He contributed to several textbooks, including  chapters on Parasitology of the CNS in  the 1^st to 3^rd editions of Infectious Diseases (Mosby Elsevier) 1999,  2003, and 2010.

He also has a special interest in Huntington’s disease in tropical countries, first reporting affected families in Papua, New Guinea, Tanzania, Saudi Arabia, and the Sultanate of Oman.  He is a life-member of the HD Association of WA.

On returning to Perth in 2006,  he was appointed  Adjunct Clinical Professor in the School of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, at UWA, teaching  Clinical Parasitology and  Tropical Public Health, in the Diploma and Master of Infection Courses.  Between 2007 and 2014, he undertook numerous consultant locum appointments with the West Australian Country Health Service in Broome in the Kimberley and in Port Hedland, the Pilbara, which involved extensive  involvement in and contribution to Aboriginal Health programs.

Establishing   the Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (DTM & H) course  in the Sultanate of  Oman.  Scrimgeour EM.   Postgraduate Medical Journal, 2004:80:221-223.