Allergic Contact Dermatitis Among Healthcare Workers Exposed to Glutaraldehyde

Background: One of the health problems that can be caused by glutaralaldehyde is allergic contact dermatitis (ACD). However, the causal relationship between glutaraldehyde and DKA is still unclear, so it is necessary to look for some evidence regarding this relationship. The search for evidence is also equipped with a seven-step assessment of occupational diseases therefore it can assist occupational medicine doctors who find patients with ACD and have a history of exposure to glutaraldehyde. Methods: Literature search using Pubmed, Scopus and JSTOR databases. The keywords used are ‘healthcare worker OR healthcare personnel’, ‘glutaraldehyde’ and ‘allergic contact dermatitis. Article selection was performed using the defined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Selected articles will be critically reviewed based on etiological studies from the Oxford Center of Evidence-Based Medicine. Result: It was in six selected articles that met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The main finding after a critical review was that glutaraldehyde may increase the risk of ACD. Conclusion: There is a relationship between 1% glutaraldehyde exposure and the incidence of ACD in health workers. To establish the diagnosis of occupational diseases in health workers who are exposed to glutaraldehyde, seven steps of diagnosis of occupational diseases are used.

Effectiveness of PPE For Prevention of Occupational Ocular Injury

Background: One of the risk factors for Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) is chemical exposure at work. The aim is to determine the relationship between patient who work as a farmer and vegetable seller with the incidence of CLL.Case presentation: A-69-year-old man who has been working as a vegetable seller since 15 years and a chili farmer since 4 years ago. The patient was diagnosed with CLL. In his work as a vegetable seller and chili farmer, the patient gets five hazards ranging from physical, chemical, biological, ergonomic and psychosocial hazards so it is necessary to analyze whether there is a relationship between the patient’s work and the current CLL disease.Discussion: There are seven steps needed in the enforcement of occupational diseases. In addition, additional examinations are needed to determine the biomarkers of pesticides that can cause disease. This requires control for farmers and vegetable sellers who may be exposed to pesticides found in vegetables and chilies. Conclusion: Vegetable seller and farmer have potential hazards, especially chemicals contained in pesticides which have a risk relationship with the incidence of CLL. However, to cause CLL, sufficient doses are required which are influenced by occupation, intensity of use and the type of specific chemical without the need for a long duration of exposure.

Optimizing The Resilience of Healthcare Workers Against The COVID-19 Pandemic

Introduction: During the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare workers have physical and psychosocial pressure in carrying out their work. The requirement for healthcare workers in dealing with the pandemic is so high, the identification process for the resilience of healthcare workers is not going well. The purpose of this article is to review about how to optimize the resilience of healthcare workers exposed to COVID-19 outbreak working conditions. Methods: This literature review is conducted in October 2021. Research related to the resilience of healthcare workers during COVID-19 Pandemic by using valid keywords, including resilience, healthcare workers, COVID-19 through ProQuest, ScienceDirect and SpingerLink. Results: A total of 10 articles were selected for the literature review. The process of self-reflection is one of the important things for healthcare workers. Optimizing relisience of healthcare workers by carrying out an efficient division of tasks to reduce workloads, give more attention to their needs, provide training and knowledge about digital applications to increase capacity in carrying out their work, provide mental health support for healthcare workers and creating a safe and comfortable work environment for them. Conclusions: Maintaining health during the COVID-19 pandemic is an important thing that needs to be done by healthcare workers. Stress management is an important factor in dealing with a pandemic. Create an assessment of the resilience of healthcare workers by detecting gaps, determining priorities, developing plans to prevent psychosocial hazards at all levels both individual and organizational levels.

The Importance and Challenges of Research and Publishing in Occupational Health During COVID-19 Pandemic

Nearing the end of the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses and companies had decided to continue their operations and strive forwards, posing superfluous challenges to occupational health (OH) professionals in keeping workers safe against the continuous threat of infections. The novelty of COVID-19 results in a myriad of medical questions, all of which needs to be answered promptly and reliably through medical research followed by dissemination of answer through publications. Making the knowledge accessible through publications ensures that OH professionals and other relevant parties can collectively develop new policies, determine preventive action, the standard of procedures and care, and administer medical procedures – all of which eases the fight against pandemics in the workplace. Despite its complications and challenges, the author hoped that OH professionals realized the importance of research and publishing in the fight against this pandemic.

Chronic Kidney Disease Among Workers Exposed To Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA)

Background: Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a class of perfluorocarbons, are synthetic environmental contaminants. Their long biological half-lives and their poor ability to metabolize likely add to any chronic health effects they may pose, such as chronic kidney disease (CKD). The causal relationship between PFOA and CKD is still unclear, so it is necessary to look for some evidence regarding this relationship. The search for evidence is also complemented by a seven-step occupational disease assessment to establish occupational diseases. Aim: This study aims to justify chronic kidney disease of workers exposed to perfluorooctanoic acid can be diagnosed as occupational diseases.Methods: Searching literature for the evidence-based has been conducted with a clinical question through “PICO” method. Then continued with literature searching using the electronic database “PubMed”, “JSTOR”, and “Scopus” search engine. The keyword is “PFOA” “perfluoroalkyl substances” “perfluorooctanoic acid” “chronic kidney” “chronic kidney disease” “CKD” and combined with MeSH terms and Boolean operation. The inclusion criteria are research on humans, English language, and the exclusion is retracted articles.Result: From the five literatures obtained, there are differences in results. A study of workers exposed to perfluorooctanoic acid in a DuPont chemical plant with chronic kidney disease was (Standardized Mortality Ratios (SMR) = 3.11, 95% CI: 1.66, 5.32). Study in China found that perfluorooctanoic acid is not associated with renal function and higher risk of CKD (OR = 0.73, 95% CI: 0.57, 0.95; p=0.019).Conclusion: There are insignificant associations between perfluorooctanoic acid and chronic kidney disease.

Occupational Stress and its Relation to Grave’s Disease

Background: Graves’ disease is an autoimmune thyroid gland disease that causes increased activity of the thyroid hormones. But, the mechanism by which the autoantibodies are generated is still unclear. Some theory suggests that daily life stress may be a risk factor that triggers Graves’ disease. The aim of this report is to enrol a systematically searching in order to get an answer about the risk factor of the Grave’s disease and the prevention measure.Methods: In this case report, a 47-year-old career woman with prominent occupational stress was diagnosed with Graves’ disease. Literature searching was done on database such as Pubmed, Cochrane Library, and Science Direct with occupational stress, stressful life event, and Graves’ disease as the keywords. One article was selected and critically appraised. Results: One case-control study showed that patients with Graves’ disease had odds ratio (OR) of having stressful life events as big as 8.59; 95%CI = 2.35-20.80, and the number needed to harm (NNH) is 2.35.Conclusion: Occupational stress is a prominent risk factor for developing Graves’ disease. However, this is based on one article

Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia In Farmer And Vegetable Seller

Background: One of the risk factors for Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) is chemical exposure at work. The aim is to determine the relationship between patient who work as a farmer and vegetable seller with the incidence of CLL.Case presentation: A-69-year-old man who has been working as a vegetable seller since 15 years and a chili farmer since 4 years ago. The patient was diagnosed with CLL. In his work as a vegetable seller and chili farmer, the patient gets five hazards ranging from physical, chemical, biological, ergonomic and psychosocial hazards so it is necessary to analyze whether there is a relationship between the patient’s work and the current CLL disease.Discussion: There are seven steps needed in the enforcement of occupational diseases. In addition, additional examinations are needed to determine the biomarkers of pesticides that can cause disease. This requires control for farmers and vegetable sellers who may be exposed to pesticides found in vegetables and chilies. Conclusion: Vegetable seller and farmer have potential hazards, especially chemicals contained in pesticides which have a risk relationship with the incidence of CLL. However, to cause CLL, sufficient doses are required which are influenced by occupation, intensity of use and the type of specific chemical without the need for a long duration of exposure.

Correlation of Asthma with Ammonia Exposure and Other Risk Factors among Informal Workers of Poultry Farmers

Objective: To determine the prevalence of asthma and its corelation with ammonia exposure among informal workers of poultry farmers.Method: This study design was a cross-sectional analytic to 69 respondents using questionnaires, field observation, physical examination, spirometry measurement, and peak flowmeter test to diagnose work-related asthma and measurement of ammonia level in air environment of farm. All variable were bivariate tested by using Chi-square test or Fischer test. The variables which have p value <0,25 were included into multivariate analysis by using binary logistic regression.Results: The prevalence of asthma in poultry farmers was 21,74%. In bivariate analysis, there was a significant corelation between working periode (p = 0,035 with OR = 7,00) and smoking habit (p = 0,018 with OR = 5,603) with asthma. There was no significant corelation between age, sex, nutritional status, work location, education level and marital status with asthma. The result of measurement of ammonia level in the poultry farm enclosure on average is 2,329 ppm. Multivariate analysis was performed on several risk factors that fulfilled the requirement p <0,25 ie working periode, smoking habit, nutritional status, and work location. From the results of mutivariate found that workers with a history of smoking habits have the strongest corelation p = 0,013 with OR 17,305.Conclusion: The prevalence of asthma in poultry farmers was 21,74%. There was no significant corelation between ammonia exposure in the work environment with asthma. But there was a significant corelation between working periode and smoking habit with asthma.

Indonesian Health Workers during COVID-19 Pandemic

Burnout in health workers causes physical and emotional fatigue; it is a condition of a long-term affective state and is an outcome of cumulative and chronic exposure to stress, particularly work stress. Burnout was especially evident in hospitals with limited availability of medical staff. Mental burdens are higher because they face more patients infected by the coronavirus, followed by the trauma of witnessing deaths among patients. These conditions may weaken the immune system, increasing vulnerability to COVID-19 and higher risk of severe symptoms that can cause death. When talking out of context of the pandemic, burnout can also be associated with various other diseases, including IBS.4 Burnout was associated with a 2.41-fold elevated prevalence of IBS after adjusting for potential confounding variables, including job strain.

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Paediatric Trainees in Belgium

Background and objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic has put strain on the activities and well-being of health care workers. We aimed to measure the direct and indirect impact on a personal and professional level for paediatric trainees in Flanders, Belgium.Study design: Junior representatives of the Flemish Society for Paediatrics (Jong VVK) conducted a longitudinal study among their fellow paediatric trainees. The impact of COVID-19 on daily tasks, education and emotional well-being for the first (March-April 2020) and second wave (October-November 2020) of the pandemic were studied.Results: One hundred and nineteen surveys were completed in the first wave, representing data of 51% (119/233) of the total number of paediatric trainees in Flanders. Eighty surveys were completed in the second wave. Educational program changes occurred in 25% (30/119) of trainees and more than half (61%; 72/119) described the pandemic as an impediment for their educational progress. The perception of impaired education persisted for 30% of the responders (24/80) during the second wave. One out of three (30%; 35/119) felt their job was more exhausting than usual and 38% (45/119) perceived more stress at work. These numbers were comparable at both time points. Increases in stress paralleled with increased irritability in daily life and poorer sleep quality. Conclusions: COVID-19 had an important impact on the daily tasks, education and emotional well-being of the paediatric trainees. Medical training centres should be aware that there is a perception of impediment on the educational program of the paediatric trainee.