Special Issue on Tropical Neurology

By John D. England, MD

John D. England, MD

During the World Congress of Neurology in 2017 in Kyoto, Japan, Profs. Marco Medina, Chandrashekar Meshram, Raad Shakir, and I proposed to publish a special issue on tropical neurology in the Journal of the Neurological Sciences. The selection of topics and authors was coordinated with the Tropical and Geographical Specialty Group of the World Federation of Neurology (WFN).  Because of the high incidence and prevalence of neglected tropical diseases (NTD) that affect the nervous system, this project was given high priority by the journal’s editorial board.

Almost half of the world’s population (approximately 3.3 billion) resides in the tropics. Taken together, NTDs affect close to 1 billion people each year. At present, these diseases affect the majority of Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Due to global climate change, these diseases are predicted to affect an ever-increasing number of people. We hope this special issue will bring greater attention to these important and highly prevalent diseases.

Because the special issue is an online product, articles are added as they are accepted for publication. Currently, nine articles covering the topics of CNS fungal infections, onchocerciasis, ebola, chikungunya, leprosy, tuberculosis, brucellosis, COVID-19, and environmental neurology are published; others covering neurocysticercosis, dengue, and zika will follow.