Publisher's Synopsis
This pocket atlas is intended for all medical and para-medical staff looking after black patients. Its object is to describe the clinical signs of skin diseases in black patients, which are significantly different from the classical textbook descriptions based on white patients. This is why the book concentrates on the major skin diseases, although the field of black dermatology is much wider than this. Infections and parasitic diseases are omitted, as these involve other descriptions and as their cutaneous features would merit a separate volume. The authors have made an exception for leprosy because of its obvious importance in black patients. The study of dermatology in black skin is an important task. For one thing, the number of patients is very large. Most black people live in tropical countries where 30% of consultations are for skin disease. In these countries, the dermatologist sees all the conditions met in temperate climates, plus certain serious endemic diseases such as leprosy and various malignancies. Moreover, the physical signs in black skin are different to those in white skin. Dermatology in black skin forms a study in its own right.
