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Infectious and Non-infectious Skin Diseases Pattern in Dermatology

and Venereology Department, Universitas Sumatera Utara Hospital,

Medan, Indonesia in 2018

Dina Arwina Dalimunthe

, Imam Budi Putra

, Nelva Karmila Jusuf

Department of Dermatology and Venereology, Universitas Sumatera Utara General Hospital, Medan, Indonesia

Keywords: Infectious, non-infectious, skin diseases, pattern, epidemiological study

Abstract: Skin disease is commonly diagnosed in the community and affected the quality of life. It is influenced by

various external factors. Therefore, the pattern of skin diseases can be different in every region.

Epidemiological studies are needed to plan for therapy and prevention of skin disease. We conducted an

observational study on the pattern of skin diseases in Dermatology and Venereology Department,

Universitas Sumatera Utara Hospital in 2018 based on the outpatient visit. There were a total of 1.899

outpatient in 2018, with dermatophytes infection, lichen simplex chronicus, and scabies as the top three skin

diseases that were diagnosed in our department. However, there were more non-infectious cases that were

diagnosed, which may be caused by multiple visits required for therapy. High incidence of infectious skin

disease is usually caused by a warm and humid climate of the country, overcrowding, and poor

environmental hygiene.

1 INTRODUCTION

Skin disease is an important disease group that often

found in the community. The prevalence of skin

disease can be different between country and regions

influenced by various external factors. Bilgili et al

(2013) found that certain skin disease such as acne,

fungal infections, contact dermatitis, and urticaria

can cause serious health problems. Skin diseases

often affect the quality of life even though most of

them are treatable. Knowledge about the incidence

of skin diseases is important to decide resource

allocation for clinical care and research to improve

public health policies (Bertanha et al, 2016).

There are several studies that have been

conducted to estimate the incidence and prevalence

of skin diseases. A study in Brazil by Bertanha et al

(2016) described that the most frequent skin

disorders in their tertiary hospital were eczema,

cutaneous infections, erythematous squamous

diseases, and malignant cutaneous neoplasms.

Another study by Larsen et al in (2005) Denmark

showed that the most common diagnosis was

eczema, drug eruption, psoriasis, atopic dermatitis,

bacterial skin infections, and inflammatory skin

disorders.

The pattern of the infectious and non-infectious

dermatological disease can be different in various

part of the country. To date, there is still a lack of

epidemiological studies on the prevalence and

incidence of skin diseases, especially in Indonesia.

Therefore, we decided to conduct an observational

study on the pattern of skin diseases in Dermatology

and Venereology Department, Universitas Sumatera

Utara Hospital in 2018. This study aims to provide

epidemiological data and information to plan disease

management strategies for therapy and prevention.

2 MATERIAL AND METHODS

This study is an observational study using data from

outpatient visits in Dermatology and Venereology

Department, Universitas Sumatera Utara Hospital

from January until December 2018. Each patient

was diagnosed after a thorough medical history and

cutaneous examination. Laboratory and other

necessary examinations were also carried out to

confirm patients’ diagnosis. The data was then

tabulated and presented in tables and charts.

Dalimunthe, D., Putra, I. and Jusuf, N.

Infectious and Non-infectious Skin Diseases Pattern in Dermatology and Venereology Department, Universitas Sumatera Utara Hospital, Medan, Indonesia in 2018.

DOI: 10.5220/0009859000680071

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease (ICTROMI 2019), pages 68-71

ISBN: 978-989-758-469-5

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3 RESULT

There were a total of 1899 outpatient that visited

Dermatology and Venereology Department,

Universitas Sumatera Utara Hospital, from January

until December 2018. Generally, the numbers of

outpatients increased every quarter (Figure 1).

We classified the patient's diagnosis of infectious

and non-infectious disease (Table 1). Our data

showed that there were more non-infectious skin

diseases with 1278 cases (67.3%), and fewer cases

in the infectious skin disease group with 657 cases

(34.6%).

Ten most diagnosed skin diseases are presented

in figure 2. Dermatophyte infection was the most

common skin disease with 213 cases (11.2%),

followed by lichen simplex chronicus with 140

(7.2%) cases, and scabies with 95 cases (4.9%).

Among these dermatophyte infection cases, tinea

cruris was accounted for the most cases (97 cases,

45.5%), followed by tinea corporis with 64 cases

(30.1%), tinea pedis with 32 cases (15.0%), tinea

capitis with 13 cases (6.1%), and tinea facial with 7

cases (3.29%).

4 DISCUSSION

In the present study, we noticed that there was an

overall increase in patient’s visit to our department

from January to December 2018. There was a slight

increase in infectious skin disease cases in October

and November 2018. Indonesia is a tropical country

with two seasons; the wet and dry season. The wet

Table 1: Outpatient visit classified according to the type of

skin disease

Months Infectious Non-

Infectious

January 54 41

February 56 70

March 39 58

April 57 126

May 44 81

June 44 106

July 43 168

August 37 155

September 56 93

October 93 130

November 82 128

December 52 122

Total 657 1278

season usually occurs in October to March (Rahayu

et al, 2018). A study in the Gambia concluded that

climatic change had the greatest effect on the

prevalence of dermatophytes and pyoderma. The

study also showed that infectious skin diseases were

overall increased during the wet season (Porter,

1980).

There were more non-infectious cases that were

diagnosed in our department. However, our data also

showed that the two skin diseases most diagnosed

were dermatophyte infection and scabies, which

both are infectious skin disease. This phenomenon

Figure 1: Outpatient visit in 2018

Infectious and Non-infectious Skin Diseases Pattern in Dermatology and Venereology Department, Universitas Sumatera Utara Hospital,

Medan, Indonesia in 2018

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Figure 2: Most diagnosed skin diseases in 2018

happened might be due to non-infectious cases are

often chronic skin diseases that require multiple

visits. High incidence of infectious skin disease is

usually caused by a warm and humid climate of the

country, overcrowding, and poor environmental

hygiene (Aman et al, 2017).

Memon et al (2011) also

found that most of the subjects with skin diseases,

especially scabies, often associated with bad

hygiene.

Dermatophyte infection is the most common

diagnosis that was found in our department. Similar

findings were also noticed in another study. A

population-based prevalence survey of skin diseases

in adolescents and adults that were conducted in

rural Sumatera, Indonesia also found that fungal

infection cases were twice as high as dermatitis

(Saw et al, 2001). Brigida et al. (2017) found that in

tropical countries, dermatophyte infections are

commonly found regardless of the population,

patient’s comorbid, or hygienic status.

The second most common diagnosis was lichen

simplex chronicus, which is a chronic skin disorder

characterized by one or more lichenified pruritic

plaques (Burgin, 2012). This skin disease is not life-

threatening but can affect the patient’s quality of

life. It affects up to 12% of the total population and

more women are affected than man (An et al, 2013).

5 CONCLUSION

Skin disease is commonly found that often affect the

quality of life, but most of them are treatable. To

date, the number of studies that discuss the incidence

and prevalence of skin disease is still limited. Our

studies showed that the frequency of outpatient visit

in our department was increasing. The most

common diagnosis found were dermatophytes

infection, lichen simplex chronicus, and scabies. It is

hoped that our data can provide epidemiological

information for therapy and prevention of skin

disease.

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Infectious and Non-infectious Skin Diseases Pattern in Dermatology and Venereology Department, Universitas Sumatera Utara Hospital,

Medan, Indonesia in 2018