TDD Media Partner the International League of Dermatological Societies (ILDS) issued an updated position statement on the Safe and Appropriate Use of Topical Corticosteroids, addressing mounting concerns over the misuse of these medicines in skin-bleaching products. Here, Professor Ncoza Dlova, the former Dean of the School of Clinical Medicine and the Head of the Dermatology Department at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa, discusses the impetus behind the position statement. “Skin bleaching is a real challenge, and it’s more common in Africa, South America, the Middle East as well as Asia, and it’s something that we’ve been really battling with for a long time,” she says, noting that there are psychosocial and political issues related to skin bleaching that have made it more of an uphill battle.
