UNASSIGNED: The deadly COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe since December 2019. Due to the significant risk of infection, frontline health workers had to use Personal Protective Equipment and hand hygiene products, to help prevent transmission of infection. The present study aims to compare the adverse skin responses between healthcare workers (HCW) and non-healthcare workers (NHCW).
UNASSIGNED: A descriptive, cross-sectional study of HCW and NHCW throughout the country wa executed. A self-structured questionnaire was utilized to gather data from 404 HCWs and 826 NHCWs during a two-month period using multistage sampling. STATA (v16) was used to analyse the data.
UNASSIGNED: 41.87% of the study participants experienced adverse skin reactions, which were more prevalent amongs HCW (65.10%) than NHCW (30.51%). The most frequently reported skin condition was skin dryness (34.39%), followed by skin peeling (11.71%). Users of alcohol-based hand sanitizers (ABHS) were more likely to get itch (8.13%), whereas soap water users were more likely to suffer from skin peeling (35.74%) and rash (7.46%). There was a significant (p < 0.001) association between occupation and adverse skin responses, with HCW being 3.5 times more likely to have adverse skin manifestations than NHCW.
UNASSIGNED: The research showed that healthcare workers were at a greater risk to developing skin reactions than the overall population with frequent use of hand hygiene measures being a significant risk factor.

Residual limb wounds or ulcers are one of the most frequent skin problems reported by lower extremity prosthesis users. Healing often requires prosthesis disuse, which can logically impair physical functioning. However, there are limited data available to support this idea. We report the impact of prosthesis disuse by presenting assessments of balance, gait, physical activity, and balance confidence obtained on a case subject before experiencing a wound and following reintroduction to a well-fit prosthesis after wound-related prosthesis disuse. The case subject was a 76-year-old male who suffered a unilateral, transtibial amputation due to synovial sarcoma 13 years before. After presenting with a history of pain in the area of a chronic skin plaque, he received a punch biopsy, which resulted in 4 weeks of prosthesis disuse followed by 12 weeks of limited use before a final well-fitting socket was received. The following data were collected 24 weeks before the biopsy and 4 weeks after receiving the final well-fitting socket: Berg Balance Scale, L-test of walking, quantitative gait analysis, Activity-specific Balance Confidence Scale, and 1 week of community-based activity. Balance confidence decreased nearly 19%, walking speed decreased by 12%, and steps/day decreased by 19% following ∼4 months of prosthesis disuse/limited use; functional measures were not impacted. Lower balance confidence is not trivial as it can lead to activity avoidance and increased fall risk. Interventions to target balance confidence changes following prosthesis disuses may be important to minimize the impact of disuse on physical and mental well-being.