By Steven L. Lewis, MD, Editor, and Walter Struhal, MD, Co-Editor
Walter Struhal
Steven L. Lewis
We are pleased to introduce this issue of World Neurology, which includes topics of interest to all readers. In this issue, Raad Shakir, MD, the president of the WFN, reports on the work being done to address the Zika virus epidemic, including efforts via the World Health Organization (WHO) and the WFN. Mamta Bhushan Singh, MD, and Michael F Finkel, MD, discuss the challenges and issues involved in tackling the problem of epilepsy in the developing world. Mohammad Wasay, MD, and Professor Wolfgang Grisold, MD, the secretary-general of the WFN, review the background and planning for this year’s day of the brain, World Brain Day 2016: Brain Health in an Aging Population. J. Eduardo San Esteban, MD, discusses the past, present, and hopes for the future of Pan American neurology and collaboration to address neurological diseases throughout the Americas. Also in this issue, Morris Freedman, MD, trustee of the WFN, with colleagues from the WFN and the Canadian Neurological Society, announce a new joint initiative between our two organizations for neurology trainees or junior faculty from Central or South America to visit the Montreal Neurological Institute for a four-week department visit. Similarly, in this issue, the WFN and the German Neurological Society announce a new department visit program for two African colleagues to visit the department of neurology in the St. Josef-Hospital in Bochum (University Clinic of the Ruhr University) and the department of neurology at the Hospital of Ulm University for four weeks. As an example of the outcome from such a visit, Kalpesh Deraji Jivan, MD, from South Africa writes an enthusiastic report from his four-week visit to the neurology intensive care unit at Innsbruck Medical University in Austria, sponsored by the WFN and the Austrian Neurological Society. Vera Bril, MD, discusses the plans for the upcoming 14th International Congress on Neuromuscular Diseases being held in collaboration with the WFN in July 2016 in Toronto. Finally, in our regular columns, John D. England, MD, editor-in-chief of the Journal of the Neurological Sciences, provides his editor’s update and selected free-access articles from the two most recent issues of the journal; John F. Brandsema, MD, reviews a recent book on Duchenne muscular dystrophy; and M. J. Eadie, MD, provides a biography of a pioneer in the epidemiology of multiple sclerosis.
We hope you enjoy reading this issue of World Neurology. Within this issue, Dr. Grisold and the editors also announce a call for articles on neurologic education for future issues. We look forward to these and other submissions of interest to the readers of World Neurology.
