|
Saudi
Arabia is one of the hottest territories in the world. Because of
its weather throughout the whole year, dermatitis (skin diseases)
increase among the pilgrims for several reasons:
- Extra excretion
of sweat due to burning sun beams and high humidity.
- Overcrowding at
Hajj, where people from all over the world gather together to
perform such a sanctified act of worship. With lots of people
gathering at the same time in a specific place, diseases can easily
spread by infection. Among the most common skin diseases during
Hajj are the following:
1- Acne
Vulgaris:
There happens
obstruction in man’s sweat glands causing the emergence of small
red pimples known as Acne Vulgaris. This disease infects people,
especially the very white, at different stages of life. Such red
pimples appear mainly in the areas of the body that come in direct
contact with clothes, which are made from artificial fibers in
particular. The patient in this case suffers from severe prurigo,
and this makes him worried and uncomfortable. Such pimples usually
around the waist, buttocks, thighs, shoulders, forearms and
forehead. If the case is recurrent the patient may be inflicted
with dehydration in the skin, and this along with hot damp weather
may cause sunburn.
Ways of
Protection and Treatment:
- Giving the house
good ventilation.
- Airing the
bedroom at the night.
- Not using any
cover during sleep.
- Keeping a way
from being directly exposed to sun beams as possible.
- Wearing light
clothes.
- Wearing soft
white clothes made of cotton that help evaporate sweat.
- Abstaining from
scratching the skin with soup and bath sponge, because this causes
new pimples to appear.
- Taking a daily
cold shower to get rid of sweat and dust, using mild soup without
bath sponge; this is the best way of protection from Acne Vulgaris.
- It is preferable
for patients to use mild moisturizers to remove the obstruction on
the mouth of the sweat glands.
Following these
steps leads to soon recovery. But beware the patients in this case
should not use any kind of moisturizing powders, because the atoms
of the powder block the openings of the sweat glands causing more
infection. So it is preferable to grease the body with olive oil,
coconut oil or any kind of plant-extracted oils; to rub the body
very well and then leave it to dry. Then the extra amount of oil
can be removed from the body with water and soup.
2- Extra
sweat excretion:
During Hajj times,
people excrete abundant sweat due to high temperature and humidity
of the weather. People’s custom of Ihram becomes wet night and
day due to extra excretion of sweat, and this causes them to
urinate very little and be always thirsty.
Ways of
Protection and Treatment:
As for people who
usually have hydrosis during summer and winter times they should
keep themselves a way from hard work, especially in the hot periods
of the day. They may also take some medication, which lessens the
quantity of sweat, but this must be according to medical
prescription. However, cleanness is the main factor in treating
such a case.
3- Sweat
Abscess and Pyodermatosis:
This disease
happens due to infection with staphylococcus. This disease appears
as a lot of bubbles, ulcer or big painful pimples. This disease
usually infects children (5-7 years old) and people who are exposed
to the heat of the sun. Extra excretion of sweat and flies are
among the main reasons for the spread of this disease. Moreover,
lice causes severe prurigo, and this may cause different forms of
abscess in the scalp of the children as well as the adults. In some
cases the disease appears as sweat furuncle and red pimples.
Cases of severe
pyoderma usually causes hypertrophy in the lymph nodes near the
neck and raises temperature of the body. Taking the necessary
measures of treatment, the patient’s skin gets completely cured.
Ways of
Protection and Treatment:
- Caring for
personal hygiene, especially for the hair to be clear of any lice
and other similar things
- In severe cases
in which the patient has high temperature and hypertrophy in the
glands or in which he suffers from sweat furuncles due to infection
with diabetes or from red pimples it is better for the patient to
consult the doctor who would check him up to know the direct cause
for such cases and consequently prescribe the right medication.
4- Abscess
in Curves of the Body:
Such type of
abscess usually happens to obese people. It appears under the
arm-bits, under the breasts for women and in the curves of the
thighs. In such cases, the skin becomes inflamed and red. In severe
cases the inflamed skin excretes some kind of transparent substance
and the patient suffers from painful prurigo.
Ways of
Protection and Treatment:
Caring for
personal hygiene, and avoiding being directly exposed to sun beams
as possible as one can, and sitting in an open place (i.e. with
good ventilation)
5 - Parasitic
Infections:
Parasitic
infections are a group of infectious skin diseases that are capable
of causing different diseases. Such parasitic infections are widely
spread in areas with hot weather conditions. They include:
A- Thigh
Tinea:
It is an
infectious disease that happens due to some parasitic infection.
Patient suffering from this disease has severe itching between his
thighs. The disease spreads through using the clothes or towels of
an infected person. Also, great overcrowding in hot weather at the
time of Hajj causes this disease to widespread among the pilgrims.
Ways of
Protection and Treatment:
- Refraining from
using the clothes and towels of others.
- Washing all
one’s clothes in a boiling water and then ironing them to kill
all parasites therein.
- Refraining from
scratching the infected area with the bath sponge.
- Consulting the
doctor to take necessary procedures.
B- Colorful Tinea:
This disease
infects the pilgrims due to hot weather and extra sweat excretion.
It takes the form of round rash whose color becomes light on taking
a bath and then it darkens and becomes brown after some days. It
spreads in the same way like thigh tinea.
Ways of
Protection and Treatment:
- Taking a hot
shower every evening for a long period that may amount to two
months.
- Smearing the
infected areas with anti-parasitic ointment upon the doctor’s
prescription.
C- Herpes:
It happens due to
infection with a certain kind of parasites. It appears in the form
of groups of small bubbles around the mouth and the genitals. This
is usually accompanied with hypertrophy and inflammation of the
lymph nodes, and in most cases it is accompanied with prurigo. It
is an infectious disease, which spreads through touch and use of a
patient’s personal things. Jam overcrowding at the time of Hajj
causes wide spread of the disease.
There is another
form of this disease, which infects the nerves and appears as
bubbles, which spread in one side of the body, especially in the
face and trunk.
Ways of
Protection and Treatment:
- Caring for
personal hygiene.
- Abstaining from
using others’ personal things.
- Seeking the
doctors’ consult once the disease, especially the last type,
appears in order to take the prescribed suitable medicine.
6 - Mange:
This is one of the
commonest infectious dermatitis, which the pilgrims contract. It
happens due to some parasitic infection. The symptoms of this
disease are severe itching at night and the emergence of some
scabies in the area that have been itched and in the areas between
the fingers, in the heels, the palms and the abdomen. There may
also be some red rash on the abdomen where the female parasite
makes her course through the body. This disease is really
infectious, so that it may spread among a whole group at once.
Treatment of this
disease is nothing than washing the body, scratching it with warm
water and soup; then smearing the whole body except the face and
the head with the Bezanil cream or sulfur ointment or anything the
doctor prescribes. This is to be repeated for two successive
nights.
The same treatment
is to be applied in cases of infection with lice etc..
7 - Eczema:
It is a kind of
inflammation in the skin, accompanied by severe itching. This
disease causes the appearance of groups of little pimples, full of
transparent liquid. This liquid may get out of the pimples, or it
may harden forming gluey scabs. The rims of such grouping pimples
are not apparent.
There are
different kinds of eczema such as severe, semi-severe and chronic
eczema; scabies eczema; pimple eczema; scabbing eczema … etc.
Ways of
Protection and Treatment:
The skin infected
with eczema is a good environment for microbes, which cause skin
inflammation. Therefore, it is necessary to follow these
instructions:
- Taking excessive
care for cleanness so as to avoid unnecessary complications.
- Protecting the
skin from materials that cause irritation, such as wool, artificial
fibers, fur and soup.
- Using
moisturizing oils moderately, so that it may not obstruct the mouth
of the sweat glands and cause more irritation.
- Avoiding any
foods or smells that cause allergy as well as anything that may
increase the severity of eczema.
- Consulting the
specialist who would prescribe the suitable medicine for your case.
8 -
Urtecaria:
The symptoms of
this disease are itching and hypertrophy of the skin. It may last
no more than some hours, and it may last some days up to two weeks.
It usually happens due to allergy to some food or medicine.
Chocolate, egg and fish are the most likely to cause urtecaria,
whereas Penicillin is the commonest medicine that causes urtecaria.
Urtecaria may also happen due to allergy to artificial substances
that are added to food to give it some color or taste or to some
toothpaste.
Doctors advise
such patients to write a diary through which they can discover the
main reason for urtecaria. Sometimes food is not the cause for it,
but rather infection with intestinal worms or due to hot weather or
even cold weather, or due to hyper-tension.
Urtecaria patients
may have severe itching in their hands when they hold driving wheel
for a long time. Urtecaria which happens due to cold weather is
usually the result of sudden change from hot weather into cold
weather, such as the case when one takes a hot shower and comes out
in a cold room, or when one remains without clothes till he dries.
Hence gradual change protects one from infection with urtecaria.
Urtecaria may also happen due to allergy to sun rays. But such
disappears after a short period after sunset. Some medicines may
cause allergy if the person who takes them stays in the sun. In
such case the disease appears in the form of skin eruption on the
face and any other part of the body that is exposed to the sun.
This may happen with medicines like salfa compounds, oral diabetic
and diuretic medicines. Also some kinds of food may cause the same
effect if one eats them and then go out in the sun, such as eating
some lemons or carrot and getting out in the sun.
The main point of
cure in this case is to protect the patient from direct contact
with sun rays, then to seek the doctors’ consult if necessary.
9 - Freckles:
When one exposes
oneself to the sun gradually and with care, one’s skin may not be
much irritated. But sometimes the skin, especially soft white skin,
takes some internal measures to protect itself against the
dangerous effect of violet, forming some dissimilar yellow and
brown rash without any eruption outside the skin. Such rash is
known as freckles. If the skin naturally has a big amount of the
coloring substance (Melanin), such small freckles may turn into
large dark freckles.
If the pilgrims
have large dark freckles, they should not worry, because such kind
of freckles disappears gradually within some months, and the skin
returns to its normal condition so long as they do not excessively
expose themselves to sun rays. On the other hand, small yellow
freckles are not easily cured. Rather it may need scaling off some
the external layer of the skin by the specialist doctor.
10 - The
Effects of Heat on the skin of the face:
After the pilgrims
return back from Hajj, some people, especially women, notice that
their faces have greatly changed and that its color has become dark
in some places. Moreover, the effect of the sun rays may reach the
extent that causes noticeable irritation and wrinkles. However,
such changes are natural, and they would take some time and the
skin would return to its normal state. So one should not worry
concerning that.
|
