Out of Africa | Nature

TROPICAL MEDICINE AND INTERNATIONAL HEALTH: A EUROPEAN JOURNAL Edited by: * _D. J. Bradley_ Blackwell Science. 12/yr.North America $690.50, Europe £378, elsewhere £416 (institutional); North

America $99.50, Europe £55, elsewhere £60 (personal) Credit: MARK DOBSON When Patrick Manson published his _Tropical Diseases_ in 1898, there was no question what constituted a tropical

disease: when an Englishman got malaria in the Fens of East Anglia it was an English disease; when an African got malaria it was a tropical disease. With the demise of colonialism, ‘tropical

medicine’ became something of a pejorative. However, to suggest that the diseases of tropical peoples were really nothing more geographically exclusive than the common cold would not be

biologically or epidemiologically correct, and, bereft of the drama of the term, would not be attractive to international funders of health projects in the developing world. Modifiers such

as ‘international health’, ‘geographic medicine’ and ‘travel medicine’ have come into fashion, although it is difficult to discern the difference they represent from Manson's _Tropical

Diseases_ and the discipline of tropical medicine. And so to _Tropical Medicine and International Health: A European Journal_. Actually, this is not a brand new journal but a meld of three

old journals: the _Annales de la Société Belge de Médecine_, _Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene_ and _Tropical and Geographical Medicine_ (which itself incorporated _Acta Leidensia_

and _Tropical Medicine and Parasitology_). Those who wish the discipline of tropical medicine to prosper will have difficulty in deciding whether to rejoice at the founding of a new journal

or mourn the loss of three well-established journals. Each of the old journals had something of a distinct character; they were all good but not great journals. Clinicians, clinical

researchers and laboratory scientists would send their good, but not their best, stuff to them. This is in no way to demean those journals, whose contents were very often more meaningful for

the understanding, control and management of tropical diseases than the more rarefied papers in the journals considered more exalted in the publication hierarchy. In reviewing the four

issues from December 1996 to March 1997, one gets the impression that the amalgam that is _Tropical Medicine and International Health_ has assumed, _gestalt_-like, the character of its

components. Most of the papers are related to the diseases and health problems of sub-Saharan Africa. The papers are mostly on clinical topics, with or without a laboratory element, and

public health studies on sanitation, policy and education. There are very few (I counted only two) papers that report pure, laboratory-based, experimental research. Each issue begins with an

editorial on an important aspect of tropical health, although none shows fire-in-the-belly fierce advocacy. If I were a member of my institution's or department's library

committee, I would certainly recommend subscription to the journal and would personally look forward to reading each new issue. Besides, three for the price of one is a bargain. AUTHOR

INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * the Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, 27599, North Carolina, USA Robert

Desowitz Authors * Robert Desowitz View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE

CITE THIS ARTICLE Desowitz, R. Out of Africa. _Nature_ 389, 145 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/38204 Download citation * Issue Date: 11 September 1997 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/38204

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