Foundation
The Community Dermatology International (CDI) was created by an association of dermatologists who attended the fort "International Congress on Dermatological Care for All - A Basic Human Right" November 2006, Mekelle, Ethiopia.
This Congress was partly initiated by Department of Preventive Medicine of Migration, Tourism and tropical Dermatology of the San Gallicano Institute in Rome, which building on its 20 years of experience with the reception and assistance of clandestine immigrants in Italy, is committed to supporting dermatological practice in developing countries. It has successfully established Ethiopia's first dermatological centre, the Italian Dermatological Centre (IDC) in 2005 in Mekelle, which in the period between 2005-2006 examined over 20.000 patients, admitted 700 and performed more than 800 biopsies and histologi8cal tests.
Scope and purpose
The CDI seeks to:
- Identify the principal skin diseases and design control methods that take into account factors such as location, social conditions and financial resources
- Target the most common skin conditions through focused management and educational programmes
- Use local skills and knowledge to have an impact on essential public health problems arising from skin or mucosal lesions such as sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS.
- Highlight the link between science and solidarity.
The concept of community dermatology is totally new approach to a speciality which has traditionally relied on individual patient diagnosis. It recognizes the fact that in many cases it may be more effective to treat diseases as community problems and apply treatment to a large number of people, e.g. in the case of common infections such as scabies.
In recent years, interest surrounding the community dermatology approach for the treatment of skin disease in developing countries has increased. Key to this trend has been the recognition that in the most developing countries, both in rural and urban areas, skin diseases is a common problem affecting up to 60% of the population. Local primary care providers are not only too few to cope with high numbers of patients, but also have to operate in poor working conditions, lacking adequate instruments, medication and facilities.
Community dermatology allows for basic, inexpensive but effective treatment that is accessible to patients in rural areas as well as in hospital or health care centres.
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