Heliotherapy: A South African perspective

Pagetoid reticulosis (Woringer-Kolopp disease) in a 2-year-old girl—Case report and review of the literature

“…Because of the summer season and sunny area, heliotherapy (the use of natural sunlight) was considered, as it is a popular form of treatment for psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, and patch stages cutaneous T-cell lymphoma in patients from European countries because of the favorable climate at these latitudes. We suggested the parents expose the patient for 26.3 minutes a day at 10:00 o'clock starting with 10 minutes and adding 30 seconds each day 9 . However, only a partial improvement was obtained after 2 months.…”

Cutaneous T-Cell Lymphoma in Sub-Saharan Africa

“…This MTD is then maintained throughout the treatment course. To reach these UVB targets with heliotherapy a patient in Pretoria at 10am with type VI skin, for example, requires 77 minutes of sun exposure to all affected areas in December, 113 minutes in March, and 228 minutes in June [16] (1/3 of this time is required for type III skin in each instance). Since an equatorial country such as Uganda has less seasonal variation and more intense UVB exposure these durations are likely over-estimates there, though a significant amount of time is still required to achieve therapeutic UVB doses using natural sunlight, especially in dark-skinned individuals.…”

Assessment of ozone variations and meteorological influences in a tourist and health resort area on the island of Mali Lošinj (Croatia)

“…Although the main indication for heliomarinetherapy is psoriasis, this therapeutic option has also been used for treating atopic dermatitis and vitiligo; theoretically, it could be adapted to treat the pruritus from renal failure and human immunodeficiency virus (Stasić et al 2004;Even-Paz and Efron 2003;Moosa and Esterhyse 2010). The therapeutic efficiency of heliomarinotherapy may be influenced by various climatic and meteorological factors, seasonal variations of tropospheric ozone, as well as by their mutual dependences on meteorological factors (Even-Paz and Efron 2003).…”