Dermatology

Skin conditions are among the most commonly encountered clinical problems for every health worker in the tropics. We are therefore grateful to the editors of MT for dedicating this special issue to dermatology, with emphasis on conditions that occur in a tropical environment. In addition, this issue will be in full colour which is essential for optimal reproduction of clinical photographs that obviously are so important in dermatology. The contributions were written by members of the Dutch Tropical Dermatology Society (Werkgroep Tropische Dermatologie) with one contribution by Ed Zijlstra. Given the limited space some of the contributions will be published on the NVTG website: ‘Scarring alopecia’ by C. van Hees, ‘Bullous diseases’ by J. Engelen and ‘Tropical infectious ulcers’ by J.E. Zeegelaar. We would like to take the opportunity to draw attention to another website that provides access to information on skin diseases in Africa. It is based on the excellent chapter on skin diseases among children in Africa by Arjan Hogewoning in his PhD thesis on ‘Skin diseases among school children in Africa’. The site also provides access to other publications such as ‘Common Skin Diseases in Africa’ by Colette van Hees and Ben Naafs and ‘Sexually Transmitted Diseases’ by Merja Koussa and Koos Sanders. A book on ‘Dermatological Preparations for the Tropics’ by Peter Bakker and Vincent Gooskens et al. that is reviewed in this issue, will also become available on the website: www.africanskindiseases.org Lastly we would like to mention another publication by members of the Working Group: ‘Imported Skin Diseases’, published by WileyBlackwell Publishing, edited by William Faber, Rod Hay and Ben Naafs. We hope that this special issue contributes to a better understanding and management of skin conditions in a tropical environment.

Colette van Hees colettevanhees@gmail.com

Ben Naafs benaafs@dds.nl