Book excerpt: We live today in a world densely populated by human beings living in close commu nication with one another all over the surface of the planet. Viewed from a certain distance it has the look of a single society, a community, the swarming of an intensely social species trying to figure out ways to become successfully independent. We obvi ously need, at this stage, to begin the construction of some sort of world civilization. The final worst-case for all of us has now become the destruction, by ourselves, of our species. I Although this warning is often repeated, we must not forget its paramount importance and the commitment that each sector of society has to make a world civilization possible. Tropical dermatology is a good example of an important area of our spe cialty that has never caught the proper attention of the leading centers of research in the developed countries, even though it comprehends major infec tious, parasitic, and nutritional problems of one-half of the world's land area and three-quarters of the world's population. The relevance of tropical dermatology in this extensive and overpopulated area of the globe has public health connotations that emphasize its importance. The sheer size of the problem makes it an urgent and outright need to recruit and train adequate personnel to do a proper job, and that includes not only dermatologists but paramedical personnel, nurses, and laboratory technicians.