IP Indian Journal of Clinical and Experimental Dermatology 2023;9(2):98–102 Content available at: https://www.ipinnovative.com/open-access-journals IP Indian Journal of Clinical and Experimental Dermatology Journal homepage: www.ijced.org/ Original Research Article The covid-19 pandemic led to an upsurge of irritant contact hand dermatitis Aman Tiwari 1, *, Mohini Sharma 1 , Shitij Goel 1 1 Dept. of Dermatology, SMSR Sharda University, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received 13-05-2023 Accepted 15-06-2023 Available online 03-07-2023 Keywords: COVID-19 Hand hygiene practices Dermatitis ABSTRACT Background: The COVID-19 Pandemic has brought about a transition in hand hygiene practices since the disease has no cure. WHO recommends frequent hand washing for at least 20 seconds each time or the use of alcohol-based hand rubs to prevent infection. This change has led to a variety of skin changes over hands including dryness, redness, irritation, etc. Dermatitis is a medical term for skin inflammation (irritation). Contact dermatitis is an allergic or irritant reaction that causes a painful or itchy skin rash. Frequent use of hand hygiene products, particularly soaps, and other detergents, is one of the leading causes of irritant contact dermatitis among health workers in this Covid pandemic era. Materials and Methods: To know the impact of change in hand hygiene practices after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, an online survey was conducted using google forms. Participants included only medical students and professionals aged 18 and above till 35 years. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. Information was recorded and analyzed. Results: The study included a total of 151 participants including medical students and professionals out of which 71 (47%) were male, 79(53%), and female, all aged between 18-35 years. 136 (90.1%) of the total participants agreed with an increase in hand hygiene practices brought about by the pandemic, using various means for the same including soap, alcohol-based gels, rubs, and wipes. 51 participants (33.8 %) noticed explicit changes in the skin of their hands after the switch in their respective hand hygiene practices. Conclusions: This study highlights the changes in hand hygiene practices due to the pandemic and the prevalence of dermatitis due to the same in medical students and professionals. The study will highlight the awareness about the prevention of skin changes in hand due to frequent sanitation and the need to seek a dermatologist if and when required This is an Open Access (OA) journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms. For reprints contact: reprint@ipinnovative.com 1. Introduction Contact dermatitis is an allergic reaction that causes a painful or itchy skin rash. As the name suggests, one gets contact dermatitis from coming into contact with an allergen (like poison ivy) or an irritant (like a chemical). 1 In December 2019 emerged the deadly virus from the streets of Wuhan which now stands for the cause of this ongoing pandemic. Currently, there is no specific treatment for the disease. Thus, WHO recommends frequent hand washing * Corresponding author. E-mail address: amant29298@gmail.com (A. Tiwari). for at least 20 seconds each time or the use of alcohol-based hand rubs to prevent contamination. 2 Hand hygiene with soap and water or by using an alcohol-based sanitizer is one of the most commonly used methods because it is cheap, effective, and simple against COVID-19. 3 However, precautions should be taken when frequently using sanitizers, as excessive use of these may cause side effects. For instance, oils secreted by the sebaceous glands of the skin have antiviral properties. 4 The regular use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers washes away these oils, leaving the skin dehydrated, which then in https://doi.org/10.18231/j.ijced.2023.017 2581-4710/© 2023 Innovative Publication, All rights reserved. 98