I wish to gratefully acknowledge the contribution of Prof Andrew Argent, Dr Gerry Boon, Prof Mark Cotton, Ms Fawzia Desai, Prof Peter Donald, Dr Teresa Edwards, Prof Brian Eley, Dr Mary Hann, Prof John Ireland, Prof Prakash Jeena, Dr Pieter Jooste, Prof Maurice Kibel, Dr Patricia Lawrence, Prof Walter Loening, Dr Elmarie Malek, Dr Neil McKerrow, Dr Mark Painter, Dr Mark Patrick, Prof David Power, Prof John Rohde, Prof Haroon Saloojee, Prof Simon Schaaf, Dr Christopher Sutton, Prof Gail Todd, Prof Gideon Tindimwebwa, Dr Hester van der Walt, Prof Eugene Weinberg, and Prof Dankwart Wittenberg.

My particular thanks to Dr Gerry Boon, Ms Fawzia Desai, Prof John Ireland and Prof David Power for their support and guidance, and to Dr Mary Hann for meticulously reviewing the draft. When opinions differed between contributing colleagues, the simplest most practical choice was adopted. While every effort has been made to correct any errors in the text, the final decision and responsibility were mine alone. Thanks to the Department of Dermatology at the University of Cape Town for the colour photographs of skin conditions.

My sincere thanks go to the publishers for their willingness to support this project and for their innovative vision of presenting the text in both book and web-based format. The latter will be made available at no cost together with an invitation to contribute in the form of comments which, after review, will be added as extensions of the text.

Royalties from the sale of this book will go to Eduhealthcare, a not-for-profit organisation which has the goal of improving the healthcare of children, especially in poor countries, through the education of nurses and doctors.

Prof David Woods