James K Tumwine, Editor-In-Chief, African Health Sciences

You are welcome to this first issue of 2024, which marks our entry into the 24th year of publication of African Health Sciences. In August 2024, we shall be celebrating 24years of steady growth and survival, as a journal in a highly competitive environment. We thank all our partners, authors, readers, reviewers, editorial team members, and our volunteer staff, and others, for your selfless, unconditional support. We do not take this support for granted , and we are extremely grateful to all of you. We are very proud of you as we, together, strive to push scientific publishing in Africa to greater heights. Thank you very
much indeed!
In this March 2024 issue of African Health Sciences, we bring you papers on infectious diseases, sexual reproductive and child health, non-communicable diseases, and health system issues.
The eleven papers on infectious diseases are, as usual, dominated by HIV and tuberculosis1-6, and others7-11, such as viral hemorrhagic fever and otomycosis.
The next section covers sexual reproductive and child health12-19. These range from gender-based violence12-13, contraception14, screening for cervical cancer15, occupational hazards, preterm labour, and attitudes to abortion16-19.
The treatise on non-communicable diseases is somewhat on familiar territory covering diabetes mellitus20-22, cancer23; irritable bowel24, COPD25, Parkinson’s disease26 and intussusception27.
The next section is a salad of sorts: surfactant, newborn screening, and nutrition status28-30. Health systems dominate the next section and include traditional health system referrals31-32, mobile phones in health care33-34, and an odd paper on deodrants in Palestine. The Editor’s choice ends with two interesting papers on herbal medicine and pharmacogenetics.
We wish you very productive and enjoyable reading!

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ahs.v24i1.1
Cite as: Tumwine JK. Editor’s choice: Tackling infectious diseases, NCDs and sexual reproductive health issues as we enter our 24th year of remarkable growth. Afri Health Sci, 24 (1). i-iii. https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ahs.v24i1.1