Dokita Volume 33 - child health edition

DOKITA, the peer-reviewed journal of the University Of Ibadan Medical Students‟ Association, has through the years been a paragon of excellence maintaining, still, the reason for its existence. The forty-eight-year old Editorial Board was, at inception, founded to produce DOKITA which was to serve as a medium for the publication of research works originating from this school of Medicine and also to improve on our writing skills. However, over the years, the Board has evolved to include other scientific programmes like the Annual Symposium, the Emeritus Professor O. O. Akinkugbe Biennial Intermedical School Quiz Competition and the Professor J. A. Adeleye Biennial National Essay Competition. A tune of excellence is what we strive at any of these programmes because by the work, one knows workman!

Though primarily a medical-student journal, DOKITA has enjoyed, and it is still enjoying, contributions from specialists and professionals in the field of medicine. In our bid to making sure that the journal is widely read and easily accessed outside the shores of Africa and beyond, the journal is presently going through a process of peer-reviewing which will ultimately ensure that the journal is accessible and can be indexed on pubmed and other on-line databases.
Child Health, in its real sense, starts from the pre-conception period and it is to include genetic counseling, prenatal screening, and covers the pregnancy period through delivery until the child is nurtured to adulthood. It represents a major part of the developing child as this period is notorious for its vulnerability to insults- organic or psychological. The period is one of great joy for the parents, but most times, this season of joy is cut short by childhood-killer diseases especially in tropical Africa.

From the foregoing, you will quite agree that a journal dedicated to these tender beings is necessary from the Editorial Board, most especially as the Board has not published any journal that wholly discusses the issue of Child Health.

The journal is a splendid collection of articles as we hold it in our very hands. In it, you will find articles on the threat of neonatal mortality, common paediatric surgical conditions, assessment of physical growth in children, paediatric anaesthesia, sickle cell disease, critical care of the premature child, child oral health, mental health, infants of diabetic mothers, millennium development goals amongst others testifying to the rich nature of this issue. Expectedly, the winning essay of the Professor J. A. Adeleye Biennial National Essay Competition titled „Climate Change: a ticking time bomb‟, and the best student-project in the Ibarapa Community Health posting for the 2008 graduating class have been included in the journal. And, of course is the „DOKITA extra‟ section which you will definitely find worth going through again and again. All these have been put together in a professional style and I have no doubt that this issue will be found interesting by those who have taken an interest in it.

The Editorial Board is highly indebted to members of the Advisory Council, our Emeritus Consultant and our Honorary Board member, and our Editorial Consultants, whom I am protégé to, for their assistance towards this publication. Their immense contributions have ensured a better journal for us all to read. My gratitude also goes to Professor A. G. Falade, Head of Paediatrics Department, University of Ibadan for taking time to write forward to this journal and to all our dear Consultants who assisted in reviewing most of the articles in this issue.

This wonderful edition will not have been possible without selfless input of the disciplined, dedicated and diligent members of the Editorial Board most especially Miss Ayobami Olokode and Mr. Abayomi Oyenuga; the Production Managers that worked tirelessly during the production of this edition.
We appreciate all our sponsors for their kind financial assistance towards this journal. And to God Almighty, we give all thanks for carrying us through the Board and for the wisdom and strength to combine the burdensome task of this publication with our primary goal in school as medical students.
Most off all, we are grateful to ourselves for being part of the success story of one of the beautiful and notable things to have come out of the Ibadan Medical School- the DOKITA journal.

Ajayi Temitope Omotayo
Editor-in-Chief,
February 2008