Incidence of Erythema Multiforme among Patients with ORF Disease in Al-Kindy Teaching Hospital

Abstract

Background: ORF virus has a worldwide distribution among sheep and goats. The hypersensitivity reaction, erythema multiforme (EM) is a known complication of ORF infection in humans; however, its occurrence is poorly understood and has not been extensively reviewed. Aims of the Study: To assess the incidence of EM among patients with ORF infection and to find the association of EM incidence to age, gender, and occupation of the patients. Method: A cross-sectional study of analytic design was conducted between 1st January 2018 and 31st December 2018 at Al-Kindy Teaching Hospital. Thirty cases of age ranging from 16 to 65 years who were clinically confirmed with ORF with and without EM eruption were included in this study. Data related to age, gender, occupation, complete clinical history, time of getting ORF infection and EM eruption was collected. Results: The finding of the current study showed that the mean age of studied sample was 36.1 ± 9.1, 19 (63.3%) participants were less than 40 years of age, 24 (80%) were female, 24 (80%) were housewives, and 9 (30%) ORF patients were presented with EM. 4 (44.4%) patients got EM infection in the first week of ORF infection and 3 (33.3%) in the 2nd week. No significant association (p ≥ 0.005 for all) was found between the status of EM and age category, gender and occupation of the patients. Conclusion: We could conclude that the incidence of EM was relatively high among patients who had ORF infection.