Prevalence of skin diseases at a healthcare clinic in a small Brazilian town.

Doctors who are not specialists in dermatology often have difficulty diagnosing and managing prevalent skin diseases. The objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of skin diseases during a three-day healthcare clinic conducted with the population of a small town on the island of Marajo where no medical care had been available for months prior to the study. At these medical consultations, 36.5% of patients were seeking help for dermatological problems. This paper describes the diagnoses made in these cases. Knowledge of dermatology has been shown to be crucial in the clinical practice of physicians who are not dermatologists.