HEPATITIS AND PSORIASIS
Hepatitis B, the type of viral hepatitis that is conveyed from person to person in “biological fluids,” is a potential risk of transfusions when the blood obtained from an unknown donor who might be a hepatitis carrier.
Normally, we would not expect to become infected with this virus merely by touching surfaces that have been contaminated with fluid droplets from a carrier, unless our skin at the contact site had been scratched, cut, or pricked (thereby simulating the conditions of a transfusion or injection). Now, however, the British Medical Journal (284:84) points out, the skin of eczema or psoriasis victims is so permeable that, even without injury, it allows virus particles to pass through into the body’s interior. To avoid such infection, therefore, the Journal article recommends that chronic skin disease victims should be immunized with the new Hepatitis B vaccine.
Since many other potentially dangerous microorganisms lurk in moisture droplets on all kinds of surfaces, particularly in public places, people with chronic skin diseases should make a habit of touching things away from home as little as possible and should carefully wash and dry the skin whenever such contact is unavoidable.
*192\143\2*
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.