PREVALENCE OF SKIN DISEASES TREATED AT PUBLIC REFERRAL HOSPITALS IN KWAZULU-NATAL, SOUTH AFRICA
Research Letter
DEAR EDITOR, In South Africa (SA), a country of about 506 million inhabitants, approximately 85% of the population is dependent on the public health sector. A total of 220 dermatologists practise in SA, with a ratio of one dermatologist to 216 000 people, most practising in the private urban areas. The importance and the need to quantify the burden of disease led us to describe prospectively the epidemiology of skin conditions in five public referral hospitals in the second most populous province of SA, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN).
To our knowledge, there is no local published or recent data in SA on the epidemiology of skin diseases seen at public health facilities. The study was conducted between 1 January and 31 March 2013. We collected data related to age, gender, ethnic group based on patients’ self-identification, and skin diagnosis. The diagnosis was made on clinical grounds, supported by relevant laboratory investigations or histopathology where necessary.
Skin diseases were categorized using the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) into acne, eczemas and papulosquamous eruptions, dyschromias, infections, connective tissue disorders, autoimmune bullous skin diseases, hair disorders, skin neoplasms, adverse cutaneous drug eruptions, genodermatoses, cosmetic and other dermatoses. Only data relating to the patient’s first visit were recorded and captured using Microsoft Excel, and subsequently analysed using SAS v9.1.3 (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, U.S.A.).