Healthcare Professionals

Report from the Journal of Investigative Dermatology: Using the 2003 National Survey of Children’s Health sponsored by the federal Maternal and Child Health Bureau, we calculated prevalence estimates of eczema nationally and for each state among a nationally representative sample of 102,353 children 17 years of age and under.

By Dr. Sunil Sharon Dhawan. What is hand dermatitis? Well, it’s any chronic rash on the hands. It is usually symptomatic; it itches, burns, bleeds, irritates, et cetera. About 2 to 9 percent of the general population has it, and a lot of people in my practice and a lot of people in most dermatology practices have it.

Researchers at National Jewish Medical and Research Center report in the October 10, 2005, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine that patients with atopic dermatitis, also known as eczema, are susceptible to bacterial infections of their skin because they fail to produce effective amounts of two antimicrobial peptides. The findings demonstrate for the first time the clinical significance of these peptides in humans, and suggest that a medication containing or inducing the peptides may one day be used to fight the infections that plague millions of atopic dermatitis patients. The accompanying editorial in the journal called it a seminal study.

Harvey Leo, M.D. St. Joseph Medical Hospital: I sat with the children yesterday while they were playing in camp and it’s interesting that I’m here because when I ask the little kids how many of them actually have food allergies, probably about 80% of them raised their hand. Then I asked them how many of them ate the foods they were allergic to and half of them raised their hands. It’s actually an interesting insight and what I’ll talk about and kind of what things you guys have been told about as parents.

This article is an excerpt from Sandra Oehlke’s speech at the Fourth Annual National Eczema Association Patient Conference.

We all know that eczema is not infectious – one of the UK National Eczema Society’s messages for very many years. Damaged skin is vulnerable to infection, however, and infected eczema is one of the most common issues raised with the UK National Eczema Society’s helpline. In this article our information team looks at why this might be and what we can do about it.

Children with atopic dermatitis (AD) who have eczema on their hands and feet generally have eczema on other parts of the body as well; it is much more common for adults than children with AD to have eczema only on their hands and/or feet.

In looking at the growing number of Google searches for vitamin D over the past several years, it is abundantly clear that vitamin D is very much on our collective mind (Google Trends, 2010). Indeed, there has been a series of highly-publicized debates, articles and missives fueling interest in this previously staid vitamin.

What Is Contact Dermatitis? If you develop redness, heat, swelling and pain on your skin when you come in contact with certain substances, you may have what is known as “contact dermatitis.”

The smallpox vaccine is made from a virus called vaccinia, which is a pox-type virus related to smallpox. The vaccine contains live vaccinia virus-not dead virus like many other vaccines. For that reason, the vaccination site must be cared for carefully to prevent the virus from spreading. The vaccine does not contain the smallpox virus and cannot give you smallpox.