Covid restrictions may have led to a massive increase in cases of eczema in the past year. Rates of the skin condition have risen by 400 percent, and today nearly half of all Britons have the problem.
Many of the new sufferers blame Covid-related stress and anxiety for their eczema, while others say that excessive handwashing caused theirs to flare up.
Official figures put the rate of eczema at around 10 percent of the population—but a new survey, carried out by the Skin Life Sciences Foundation, puts the rate four times higher. They had interviewed a thousand people and discovered that eczema was now a problem for 44 percent of them.
Of those, 66 percent suffering from eczema, dermatitis or psoriasis blamed their condition on stress and anxiety, many citing the Covid pandemic as the cause. A further 72 percent said that excessive handwashing—recommended by health advisers to lessen Covid’s spread—had caused their skin problem to flare up and worsen.
Other triggers for eczema include allergens, perfumes, chemicals, cold weather and some fabrics.
(Source: Skin Life Sciences Foundation; www.slsf.uk)
