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Context Specific Paediatric Rheumatology Care-Lessons from Africa

Guest Editors:
Angela Nyangore Migowa, MBCHB University of Nairobi, MMED Paediatrics and Child Health, Paediatric Rheumatology McGill University, PHD Candidate Ghent University, Aga Khan University Medical College East Africa, Nairobi Kenya

Wafa Hamdi, MD, Tunis El Manar University, Tunisia

Submission Status: Closed


This collection is no longer accepting submissions.


Pediatric Rheumatology is calling for submissions to our collection on Context Specific Paediatric Rheumatology Care-Lessons from Africa. The landscape of paediatric rheumatology care across Africa is rapidly changing and expanding. Despite the health burden of acute conditions such as infections we strive to promote awareness and optimize healthcare for children with arthritis and its associated diseases to mitigate against the associated morbidity, disability and mortality. We hope to do this by showcasing how best to adopt best clinical practice despite the diverse socio-cultural background of countries in Africa. We invite interested authors to showcase their ideologies and research in promoting context specific paediatric rheumatology care in low middle income countries.

  1. The prevalence of back and neck pain is common in children and adolescents, and in some series the numbers are alarming. Various risk factors have been identified, although some are controversial.

    Authors: Alia Fazaa, Ines Cherif, Saoussen Miladi, Hiba boussaa, Yasmine makhlouf, Kaouther ben abdelghani and Ahmed laatar
    Citation: Pediatric Rheumatology 2024 22:84
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  2. The spectrum of Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) in Africa is still largely unknown. We thus set out to illustrate how we set up the PAFLAR JIA registry and describe the clinical profile of Juvenile Idiopat...

    Authors: Angela Nyangore Migowa, Wafa Hamdi, Soad Hashad, Hala Etayari, Awatif Abushhaiwia, Hanene Ferjani, Dorra Ben Nessib, Lobna Kharrat, Alia Fazaa, Lawrence Owino, Ayodele Faleye, Sheila Agyeiwaa Owusu, Doaa Mosad Mosa, Mervat Eissa, Samah Ismail Nasef, Gehad Gamal Elsehrawy…
    Citation: Pediatric Rheumatology 2024 22:67
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  3. The World Health Organisation Essential Medicines List (WHO EML) guides National Essential Medicines Lists and Standard Treatment Guidelines for clearly identified disease priorities especially in low- and mid...

    Authors: Waheba Slamang, Christiaan Scott and Helen E. Foster
    Citation: Pediatric Rheumatology 2024 22:63
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  4. Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a life-threatening, chronic, autoimmune disease requiring long term subspecialty care due to its complex and chronic nature. Childhood-onset SLE (cSLE) is more severe than...

    Authors: Naira Ikram, Laura B. Lewandowski, Melissa H. Watt and Christiaan Scott
    Citation: Pediatric Rheumatology 2024 22:59
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  5. Kawasaki disease has been described across the globe, although publications from Africa are limited. To our knowledge, there are no publications on Kawasaki disease from Kenya, which triggered this report.

    Authors: A. Migowa, CM. Njeru, E. Were, T. Ngwiri, I. Colmegna, C. Hitchon and R. Scuccimarri
    Citation: Pediatric Rheumatology 2024 22:43
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  6. Rheumatic diseases can seriously impact children’s general health, development, and growth. However, due to a lack of resources, paediatric rheumatology is a largely underdeveloped speciality in many African n...

    Authors: Dzifa Dey, Bright Katso, Afia Baah, Saudatu Isaaka and Emmanuella Amoako
    Citation: Pediatric Rheumatology 2024 22:40
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  7. Multicentric carpotarsal osteolysis (MCTO) is a rare genetic disorder characterized by the progressive loss of bone in the hands, feet, and other skeletal structures. It presents with symptoms that may resembl...

    Authors: Xianfei Gao, Xiang Fang, Danping Huang, Song Zhang and Huasong Zeng
    Citation: Pediatric Rheumatology 2024 22:37
    Content type: Case Report Published on:

  8. Kawasaki disease (KD) is an acute systemic vasculitis of unknown etiology that affects infants and young children but is extremely rare in neonates, especially afebrile KD. We present a case of KD without feve...

    Authors: Mingjun Shen, Die Liu, Fang Ye, Jing Zhang and Jun Wang
    Citation: Pediatric Rheumatology 2024 22:23
    Content type: Case Report Published on:

  9. Due to the paucity of paediatric rheumatologists in Kenya, it is paramount that we explore strategies to bridge clinical care gaps for paediatric rheumatology patients in order to promote early diagnosis, prom...

    Authors: Angela Migowa, Sasha Bernatsky, Anthony K. Ngugi, Helen E. Foster, Peterrock Muriuki, Roselyter M. Riang’a and Stanley Luchters
    Citation: Pediatric Rheumatology 2023 21:144
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  11. Pediatric musculoskeletal disorders account for 10% of first-line consultations in Tunisia. Referral delay and deficiencies in musculoskeletal screening raise a challenge to the early diagnosis and management ...

    Authors: Lassoued Ferjani Hanene, Narjess Amdouni, Rabhi Emna, Sahli Hela, Ben Abdelgheni Kaouther, Ben Nessib Dorra, Kaffel Dhia, Maatallah Kaouther and Hamdi Wafa
    Citation: Pediatric Rheumatology 2023 21:133
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  12. Paediatric rheumatic diseases cause considerable disease burden to children and their families (Moorthy LN, Peterson MGE, Hassett AL, et al, Pediatric Rheumatology 8:20, 2010). Delayed diagnosis is a significa...

    Authors: Jacqueline E. Kawishe, Anthony Ngugi, Stanley Luchters, Helen Foster and Angela Migowa
    Citation: Pediatric Rheumatology 2023 21:103
    Content type: Research article Published on:

About the collection

Pediatric Rheumatology is calling for submissions to our collection on Context Specific Paediatric Rheumatology Care-Lessons from Africa. The landscape of paediatric rheumatology care across Africa is rapidly changing and expanding. Despite the health burden of acute conditions such as infections we strive to promote awareness and optimize healthcare for children with arthritis and its associated diseases to mitigate against the associated morbidity, disability and mortality. We hope to do this by showcasing how best to adopt best clinical practice despite the diverse socio-cultural background of countries in Africa. We invite interested authors to showcase their ideologies and research in promoting context specific paediatric rheumatology care in low middle income countries.

The goal of this series is to highlight the challenges paediatric rheumatology patients in low middle income regions face and showcase various strategies to help overcome these challenges through socio-cultural adaptation of best clinical practice. Cognizant of the fact that we have diverse socio-cultural backgrounds, it is key to emphasize how we intend to customize our proposed solutions for the various populations we serve to be socio-culturally acceptable while keeping in mind solutions that are affordable, feasible, acceptable accessible, sustainable and safe.

We look forward to receiving editorials, quantitative research, qualitative research and reviews highlighting sociocultural adaptation for best clinical practice regarding the healthcare offered to our pediatric rheumatology patients along with articles that explore solutions to the problems the patients face.

Submission Guidelines

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This Collection welcomes submission of Research Articles, Data Notes, Case Reports, Study Protocols, and Database Articles. Before submitting your manuscript, please ensure you have read our submission guidelines. Articles for this Collection should be submitted via our submission system, Editorial Manager. During the submission process you will be asked whether you are submitting to a collection, please select "Context Specific Paediatric Rheumatology Care-Lessons from Africa" from the dropdown menu.

Articles will undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process and are subject to all of the journal’s standard policies. Articles will be added to the Collection as they are published.

The Guest Editors have no competing interests with the submissions which they handle through the peer review process. The peer review of any submissions for which the Guest Editors have competing interests is handled by another Editorial Board Member who has no competing interests.