Skin diseases highlighting essential global public health priorities

Abstract

Which are the essential global public health activities that should be carried out in order to attain the largest impact on poverty reduction and health improvement in the world? Since its foundation in 2001 the Human Mobile Population Committee (HMPC) has continued to devote its efforts to finding answers to this question, with a particular focus on the skin diseases of the Human Mobile Population (HMP) and other groups of disadvantaged people. In this article we present the model of socio-sanitary activity in the field of Migration, Poverty and Health of the Department of Preventive Medicine of Migration, Tourism and Tropical Dermatology (Dept.) at San Gallicano Institute--Research Institute for Hospitalization and Treatment (IRCCS)--in Rome (Italy). The activities of this dermatological centre are in the spirit of the HMPC's aims and we are of the opinion that this model is not only ethically valid, but also practically and economically convenient, and that there is evidence that our experience is worth repeating, in as many situations as possible, in the interest of public health.

Skin diseases in the Peruvian Amazonia

“…Scabiosis is a parasitic dermatosis that is common in tropical areas 1 and represented 3.2% in our study. Poor sanitary conditions, crowding, and malnutrition created the appearance of scabiosis in this area.…”

“…Moreover, they are an important cause of morbidity, economic burden, and social exclusion. In developing countries, dermatological diseases are a remarkable problem in public health, especially those with infectious etiology 1 . Therefore, they are considered in the Disease Control Priorities Project of the World Bank/WHO/Fogarty International Center 2 …”

Skin diseases in rural Yucatan, Mexico

“…Our findings may be applicable to the development of public health initiatives targeting rural communities. In 2005,Morrone et al. 24 identified 12 global public health priorities for dermatologists around the world.…”

Poverty, health and development in dermatology

“…In Western countries, health operators usually overestimate the incidence of tropical diseases in the immigrants and underestimate the occurrence of ubiquitous conditions. On the other hand, they usually do not recognize severe tropical conditions (the so called Salgari's syndrome) 20,21 …”