eMagazine August 2022
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OUR PEOPLE,<br />
OUR MISSION<br />
Global Health<br />
<strong>eMagazine</strong><br />
<strong>August</strong> <strong>2022</strong><br />
Highlights<br />
Clinical Case of the Month<br />
Reflections<br />
Health Disparities Within Our<br />
Borders<br />
Nursing Division<br />
Art to Remind Us of Who We<br />
Can Be<br />
Our Beautiful Planet<br />
Among the Letters<br />
Congratulations<br />
Global Health Team<br />
Calendar<br />
Resources<br />
Clinical Case<br />
of the Month<br />
Written by Joshua Matsiko<br />
Medical Student at MakCHS<br />
Matsikojoshua091@gmail.com<br />
Skin-Bleaching the Silent<br />
“Pandemic” in the Global South<br />
In the emergency ward of Mulago National<br />
Referral Hospital at around 10 PM while on night<br />
shift, an ambulance brings in a woman who had<br />
been involved in a road traffic accident. She<br />
had multiple lacerated wounds on her face and<br />
right upper limb. Given that all the doctors on<br />
call that night were attending to more severe<br />
emergencies, I was given permission to suture<br />
the lacerations, as they were not very deep,<br />
and I had performed quite a number of suturing<br />
procedures with supervision.<br />
I disinfected the site and applied local anesthesia. On beginning the suturing, I<br />
encountered an unexpected occurrence. Every time I tried to oppose the skin with<br />
average strength, the sutures consistently tore through the skin. My patient’s skin<br />
was softer and thinner than normal. Her skin tone was uneven, with her face very<br />
light-skinned while her lips, fingernails, elbows, knuckles, palms, and hands were<br />
darker. This is a common presentation of patients who use skin bleaching products.<br />
On asking the patient, she endorsed using skin-bleaching lotion. On further<br />
research, I discovered that there was a possibility that this occurrence could be<br />
due to the skin-lightening effects among other possible causes.<br />
With this in mind, I decided to carry<br />
out a short survey on the different<br />
effects of skin-bleaching on<br />
wounds. We observed 108 women<br />
with different kinds of wounds<br />
who were using skin-bleaching<br />
products including but not limited<br />
to bleaching creams, soaps, pills,<br />
injectables, chemical peels, and<br />
laser therapy. We discovered that<br />
these women experienced slower<br />
wound healing, and their wounds<br />
were more prone to infection and<br />
excess bleeding. There was also<br />
3<br />
3<br />
Clinical Case continued on next page >>
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