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CORRESPONDENCE |
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| Year : 2022 | Volume
: 67
| Issue : 1 | Page : 86-87 |
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| Dermatological manifestations among health care workers following COVID-19 precaution taking measures |
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Sameer Abrol1, Rohini Sharma2
1 MD Medicine, Govt. Medical College, Jammu, India
2 Assistant Professor, Department of Dermatology, Govt. Medical College, Rajouri, Jammu and Kashmir, India
| Date of Web Publication | 19-Apr-2022 |
Correspondence Address:
Rohini Sharma
Assistant Professor, Department of Dermatology, Govt. Medical College, Rajouri, Jammu and Kashmir
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/ijd.ijd_345_21
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How to cite this article:
Abrol S, Sharma R. Dermatological manifestations among health care workers following COVID-19 precaution taking measures. Indian J Dermatol 2022;67:86-7 |
How to cite this URL:
Abrol S, Sharma R. Dermatological manifestations among health care workers following COVID-19 precaution taking measures. Indian J Dermatol [serial online] 2022 [cited 2023 Jun 4];67:86-7. Available from: https://www.e-ijd.org/text.asp?2022/67/1/86/343273 |
Sir,
In the current pandemic of SARS-COV-2 having high transmission rate, the health care workers are at high risk in view of the high transmission rate of the SARS-COV-2 virus and the ignorance about the infectious status of the patients, thus making it imperative that they need to take full precautions.[1] The purpose of this study was to assess the various adverse dermatological manifestation among health care workers (HCWs) following these precautions.
In this descriptive questionnaire-based study, various health care workers (n = 75) involved in COVID-19 patients' management were taken up. Due consent was taken from the ethical committee and a written informed consent was taken from all the participants. The Questionnaire included—age, gender, designation, duration of use of protective equipment like PPE, gloves, masks, etc., morphology, and type of the adverse skin reactions noted. All the data were analyzed using the SPSS21.0 software (SPSS Inc, Chicago, IL).
In our study, there were 33 nurses (44%), 29 doctors (38.6%), 10 sweepers (13.3%), 3 lab technicians (4%). The most common protective gear implicated in adverse dermatological manifestations was the latex gloves (37, 49.3%), masks (20, 26.6%), and the PPE kit (8, 10.6%). In the remaining 10 (13.3%), the reasons were frequent use of hand sanitizers and goggles. The most common site involved was the hands seen in 40 (53.3%), cheeks in 11 (14.6%), back in 8 (10.6%), nasal bridge in 7 (9.3%), and forehead in 2 (2.6%).
The continuing pandemic of SARS-CoV-2, which started in 2019, makes it imperative to continue with the preventive measures. The inculcation of these preventive measures leads to a myriad of adverse cutaneous reactions among the health care workers.[2] There is dearth of studies to assess the adverse skin reactions among health care workers, thus making this study significant in providing possible ways to ameliorate the adverse effects. In our study, gloves came out to be the most common reason among health care workers causing adverse skin manifestations followed by N-95 masks in contrast to other studies reporting masks (N95) as the most common reason.[2],[3] This could be attributed to the scarcity of N-95 masks in our setup and more use of surgical masks.
The most common side effects were dry chapped skin followed by vesiculation and aggravation of preexisting hand eczema among patients which was in concordance with other studies.[2],[3],[4] The use of N-95 masks led to acneiform eruptions and folliculitis in our study, whereas other studies reported acne, nasal bridge scarring, rash, and facial headache.[2],[5] Lastly, PPE kits led to erythema, furunculosis, miliaria, and aggravation of tinea cruris, whereas other studies reported only minor. This again can be attributed to the high humidity and rising temperatures in our country.
Acknowledgement
Nil
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
 References | |  |
| 1. | Wu YC, Chen CS, Chan YJ. The outbreak of COVID-19: An overview. J Chin Med Assoc 2020;83:217-20.  |
| 2. | Hu K, Fan J, Li X, Gou X, Li X, Zhou X. The adverse skin reactions of health care workers using personal protective equipment for COVID-19. Medicine 2020;99:e20603. |
| 3. | Foo CC, Goon ATJ, Leow Y-H, Goh CL. Adverse skin reactions to personal protective equipment against severe acute respiratory syndrome–a descriptive study in Singapore. Contact Dermatitis 2006;55:291-4. doi: 10.1111/j. 1600-0536.2006.00953.x. |
| 4. | Douglas R, Morton J, Czarny D, O'Hehir RE. Prevalence of IgE-mediated allergy to latex in hospital nursing staff. Aust N Z J Med 1997;27:165-9. |
| 5. | Lim EC, Seet RC, Lee KH, Wilder-Smith EP, Chuah BY, Ong BK. Headaches and the N95 face-mask amongst healthcare providers. Acta Neurol Scan 2006;113:199-202. |
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