Doctor specialized in tropical disease and travel medicine

Martin S. Wolfe, a tropical disease specialist who founded one of the country’s first medical practices devoted to ailments incurred in travel and who, in the 1970s, accompanied Henry Kissinger as his personal physician, died June 15 at his home on Block Island, R.I. Hewas 82.

Thecausewas a failure of his artificial heart pump, said his son, DavidWolfe.

Wolfe developed an interest in tropical diseases as a medical student and, early in his career, spent fiveyears doing field research in Ghana and Pakistan. As a staff medical officer for the State Department, he traveled the world with then- Secretary of State Kissinger. He also served as a tropical medicine expert for the World Bank.

In 1980, Wolfe opened Traveler’s Medical Service, believedtobe the firstmedical office of its kind in Washington. He also had an affiliated parasitology laboratory and a private practice.

Wolfe advised people making overseas trips about potential health risks and administered immunizations. If travelers returned with mysterious ailments, he often had to become a medical detective.

He determined a diagnosis by retracing a patient’s journeys to pinpoint where exposure to various maladies might have occurred. Wolfe often consulted with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about infectious diseases rarely seen in the United States, such as malaria, cholera and yellowfever.

He wrote more than 100 academic papers and textbook chapters about tropical medicine and travel medicine.

Martin Samuel Wolfe was born April 9, 1935, in Scranton, Pa. He attended Cornell University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in 1957 and a medical degree in 1961.

Wolfe retiredin2015. The Traveler’s Medical Service in Washington is now operated by his son, a physician; itsNewYork branch is run by a daughter, a registered nurse and public health specialist.