Paediatric skin disease at Port-of-Spain general hospital, Trinidad - abstract

A one-year study was carried out on children in the age-group neonates to 12 years attending the Paediatric Skin Clinic at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital. Referrals to this clinic came from general practitioners, health offices from most of the north of Trinidad as well as the Outpatient Paediatric Clinics. The 340 new paediatric skin patients seen formed 20 percent of the total population of new cases seen in all skin clinics in the period under review. Atopic eczema (26 percent) was the commonest paediatric skin problem, and this together with tinea capitis (14 percent), scables (12 percent), papular urticaria (9 percent), seborrhoeic eczema (7 percent), viral warts (6 percent) comprised the six most common skin conditions in the age groups. Only the first four when severe tended to interfere with school attendance. The apparent preponderance of Afro-Trinidadians is consequential on geography and is therefore not significant (AU)