WFH leading to skin issues: Docs

WHILE ONLINE classes were stopped and all children are attending physical classes now, employees who are working from home are still vulnerable, doctors said.

Lack of exposure to the sun due to prolonged periods of work from home and online classes for students led to a rise in vitamin D deficiency and skin-related ailments, according to dermatologists.

While online classes were stopped and all children are attending physical classes now, employees who are working from home, a lot of whom were especially from the IT sector, are still vulnerable, they said. Dr Ravali Yalamanchili, cofounder, Neya Dermatology and Aesthetics said the most common issue seen in children who spent long hours in air-conditioned (AC) rooms was extreme dryness of skin or xerosis and vitamin D deficiency.

“Even with supplements, we noticed that the vitamin D levels were not improving as before,” she said. She added that dry skin itself sometimes caused a flare up of other skin conditions or allergies. The remedy for the same is use of moisturisers on the skin.

Dr V. Anand, senior consultant, KIMS Hospitals, said he had received cases where patients, upon spending long hours in AC and then suddenly going out into the sun, had suffered from skin rashes, polymorphic light eruption (inflamed skin), sunburn and sun tanning.

Satyanarayana Mathala, president, Telangana Facilities Management Council (TFMC), said currently, the percentage of IT employees working from offices was 45-50 per cent, and most of them were working on a hybrid model, i.e. where they had to work 2-3 days in a week from the office. While the numbers had seen a weekon-week improvement since March, the hybrid model was expected to continue for about 2-4 months more, Mathala said.