Abstrak
The current issue of this journal contains nine research articles, one review article and two case reports. The
papers cover wide areas of interest but four of them will be focused on in this short editorial review. These are:
1. Outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease in the West Africa Sub-region by Osungbade and Oni. 2.
Bibliometric/scientometric investigation of African journal of Medicine and Medical Sciences by Obajemu et
al. 3. The Pharmaceutical equivalent and stability of multisource metronidazole suspension by Ajala et al. 4.
Nurses’ reported practice and knowledge of wound assessment tools and documentation in a selected hospital in
Lagos, Nigeria by Oseni and Adejumo. Although all the papers are excellent, these four papers are selected for
their scientific and public health import. The third and fourth amongst them have commentaries written on
them by researchers in related fields [1-2].
Ebola Virus Diseases (EVD) is currently enjoying much attention both in the scientific and lay press as
well as on social media. Dr. Osungbade and Prof Oni have given us an update on the literature on
epidemiology, transmission, treatment and prevention of the disease. The Editorial Board of the Journal feels
this is a topic of utmost public health importance and articles are welcome on the topic.
Bibliometric/scientometric investigation of our journal is an unsolicited but welcome analysis of the
content of the issues published in the 10 years 2001-2010. The paper in particular rates our performances in the
10 year period comparing us with other journals in our region as well as describing the nature and regional
distribution of our contributors. Though there could be difficulties or even overlap in putting the articles in
different ‘pigeon holes’ Dentist which consists of many departments has the highest percentage of published
papers while articles on mortality are the least. It also reported on the numbers of authors per paper and 3
authored articles are the most frequent while more than 10 authors constitute less than 1%. One other aspect of
the report is that the number of articles published per issue has reduced from 15 in 2001 to 10 in 2010; however
the reduction has probably been compensated for by the improved quality of articles published as rejection rate
by our journal is now about 405 of submitted articles.
The next article on: The Pharmaceutical equivalent and stability of multisource metronidazole
suspension is equally of immense public health importance. In the recent past, both the lay and scientific press
had received a lot of attention on fake drugs; while one is not classifying any drugs in this group as fake, there
is no doubt there is an issue as to the efficacy of some of them. The authors stated that four of the 18
suspension evaluated were found to be pharmaceutically equivalent, that included the innovator brand. They of
course blamed storage procedures as being part of the problem. One important question is: How do we ensure
that sick children are adequately and properly treated under the present condition? What type of public
education do we need? What legislations do we need to ensure that manufacturers produce drugs that are
reliable in treating illnesses? There is no doubt there are economic benefits in the use of generic drugs but other
countries ensure that standards are maintained. Metronidazole suspension is not the only pharmaceutical agent
in this category and it would be important to monitor every drug closely from factory to the time it is given to
the patient. Dr. Orimadegun was kind enough to run a commentary on the subject for us [1].
The fourth article is: Nurses’ reported practice and knowledge of wound assessment tool and
documentation in a selected hospital in Lagos, Nigeria. Wound healing is an important subject to surgeons,
nurses and physicians. This paper by Oseni and Adejumo is timely reminding readers of the need to keep this
topic as a ‘front burner’. Dr. Ademola also ran a commentary highlighting the importance of this topic. [2]
There are other interesting articles of high scientific value.
O. Baiyewu
Editor-in-Chief