Medicine and medical sciences in Africa

The year 2014 is an important year because it will mark the 25th Anniversary of the founding of the African Association of Physiological Sciences (AAPS) and initial talks to launch the International Society for Pathophysiology (ISP). Both these organizations had a foothold in Finland and both occurred during the IUPS Centennial Celebration Congress in 1989. The congress was hosted by the Finnish Physiological Society in Helsinki, Finland in July 1989. For both organizations, Prof OsmoHänninen was instrumental in the launching and inauguration of AAPS and also to initiate the creation of ISP. In order to celebrate the 25th Anniversaries of both organizations it was decided to hold the ISP2014 congress on the African soil. Hence in 2004, at the 4th international congress of AAPS held in Morocco, Wail Benjeloun.the then secretary general of AAPS, submitted successfully a bid to host ISP2014 in Morocco. Following the inauguration of AAPS in Helsinki, the 1st Congress of AAPS was held in Nairobi, Kenya in 1992 where the Constitution of AAPS was drawn up. The Constitution was adopted at the 2nd congress of AAPS in Durban, South Africa in 1997. Following this congress, the next congress, as scheduled, was held in Pretoria, South Africa in 2000. The last congress (6th) of AAPS was held on 1-5 September 2012 in Ismailia, Egypt. This was an historical congress because of many reasons and amongst these was the appointment of Anthony B. Ebeigbe, Department of Physiology, University of Benin, Nigeria as its first Editor-in-Chief of its official journal, the Journal of the African association of Physiological Sciences (JAAPS). He successfully published the first issue in June 2013, as mandated in Ismailia. The World's medicine has its initial root in Africa and in fact it was in Memphis, Egypt as early as 2700 BC. During the Ptulomaic period the seat of medicine was in Alexandria, Egypt and Medical knowledge then spread to the Greeks 330 BC. Many western medical scientists acknowledge learning medicine and anatomy form the Egyptian experts. The University of Al Karaouine, in Fez, Morocco, Africa is considered the oldest continuously operating university in the world and has been a center of learning for more than 1,000 years. Medicine in Africa has been acknowledged by many authoritarians to be well developed, long before its development in Greece and other European Countries. Almost every African country has medical and medical sciences societies and associations. According the WHO, African journals online (AJOL) as the worlds largest collection of peer-reviewed journals. It is also believed that Africa will play a major role in Sciences in the future, and in fact one of the Worlds leading palaeo-anthropologist was a South African.