In this issue of the journal, there are original papers on homicides among seafarers and fishermen, on gastro-intestinal illness among passengers of cruise ships, and overviews of morbidity among Japanese and Vietnamese seafarers.
Occupational allergies in the seafood industry is the subject of a paper contributed by Authors from Australia and South Africa.
Psychological hazards in the life of seafarers, and the influence of personality of students of the Maritime Academy on their future successful career are the subjects of two papers published in this issue.
There are three papers in the chapter on diving and underwater medicine.
Is the doctor who works on a cruise ship considered by passengers to be a Very Important Person? You bet he /she is. The evidence is provided by the Author of a paper which you find in chapter Miscellanea. Read it before joining as a ship’s surgeon on such a ship.
Since several years, the Institute of Maritime and Tropical Medicine in Gdynia has supported the work of a Health Center in a rural area of Angola, by deputing staff from our Clinical Department, by training local health staff, and in various other ways. Research work is also conducted there, and the report on it is contained in a paper on malaria published in this issue of the IMH.
In May 2005, there will be the 8th International Symposium on Maritime Health held in Rijeka, Croatia, organised by our Collegues from that country. We hope for an interesting scientific programme, and we invite presenters to publish their papers in the next issue of our journal.
The volume which readers have in their hands is already the 55th issue published of the International Maritime Health.
It is a round figure.
It deserves a moment of reflection: such a long tradition of publishing a journal.
In a way, it is also evidence of the involvement of the staff of our Institute during recent several decades in their work aimed at the promotion and protection of health of international seafarers, fishermen, and other maritime workers.
Editor