Cutaneous and mucosal changes among health care workers performing duties in COVID-19 isolation wards of Tertiary Care Hospitals

Zahid Rafiq; Ahsan Anwar; Rana Aamir Diwan; Urfa Shafi

Abstract
Objective: To determine the frequency of cutaneous and mucosal changes among health care workers due to wearing of PPE in COVID-19 isolation wards of Tertiary Care Hospitals.
Methodology: This cross sectional study was conducted at DHQ/GHAQ Teaching Hospitals, Sahiwal Medical College, Sahiwal. A web-based survey was shared on the Whatsapp/Email for the collection of data among healthcare workers who had performed duties in COVID-19 isolation wards of different public teaching hospitals of the Punjab, Pakistan.
Results: Out of 121 participants, 61(50.4%) were female and 60(49.6%) male. Majority of participants were less than 30 years of age. Among the participants, 115(95%) were doctors while 6(5%) were paramedical staff. Involvement of different facial sites and hands were found. Itching 63((51.2%) was the most commonly noticed symptom followed by dryness/tightness 52(50.5%), irritation 51(49.5%) and burning/pain 12(11.7%). Frequently observed cutaneous changes were erythema, scaling and papules at various locations of face while vesicles and fissures at hand and feet. Common mucosal changes were dryness of mouth 40(76.9%) and halitosis 22(42.3%) in oral cavity and watering of eyes 26(56.6%) and redness of conjunctiva 15(32.6%).
Conclusion: Increased usage of personnel protective equipment among Health Care Workers leads to significant cutaneous changes at face, hand and oral mucosal changes.

Key words: Cutaneous changes, healthcare workers, mucosal changes.

ABOUT JOURNAL About Publisher Contact Us Editorial & Peer Review Process	POLICIES Privacy Policy Editorial Policy Author's Rights and Obligations Conflict of Interest Policy Plagiarism Policy Advertising Policy	STATEMENTS Terms of Use Author's Rights and Obligations Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement Protection of Research Participants (Statement On Human And Animal Rights) License Information

This is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) definition of open access. The articles in Rawal Medical Journal are open access articles licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.

Indexed in WHO Index Medicus IMEMR, Emromedex, Pakmedinet, ExtraMED, Scopus, Web of Science and Tehqeeqat

How to cite this article

	Open Access and Peer-reviewed
Home Journal Issues Guide for Authors Editorial Board Aims & Scope About Journal News & Announcements