Almost two years ago, when many people in the U.S. were still blindly unaware of what was really happening in Syria , two dermatologists, Grace Bandow, MD, and Samer Jaber, MD, went on a medical mission to the Syrian refugee camps in Jordan. You might be thinking, Why derms? People in the camps need food, water, and medicine, but skin care?Skin care may not seem as obvious as those other necessities, but the close conditions in these camps can cause many skin-related issues. Before they left, Dr. Bandow and Dr. Jaber armed themselves with the necessary medicine to combat lice, scabies, and parasitic and bacterial infections. But what they didn't expect was that the item they found themselves needing most, as well as the one most requested by their patients, was Vaseline petroleum jelly — yes, that unassuming jar sitting in most every American's medicine cabinet.“Until we were working in the refugee camps ourselves, we didn’t realize how important and useful Vaseline was,” explains Dr. Bandow. “Vaseline is used as a skin protectant to help soothe eczema, psoriasis, burns, and dry, cracked skin and lips. Refugees fleeing the Syrian civil war are walking miles through hot deserts, often in open rubber sandals that leave their feet exposed. We saw many patients with deep, painful cracks in their skin, which made walking or working painful, and sometimes impossible… Thousands of Syrians are living in crowded tents and cooking over open flames and sadly, burns are commonplace. Vaseline provides protection and an emollient effect to the burns as they are healing.”Upon their return to the States, the derm duo cowrote an article for The Washington Post detailing their experience. They told stories of a man with burns on his hands, another with deep and painful cracks on his feet, and a 12-year-old girl with blistering skin — all of whom benefitted from something as basic and inexpensive as Vaseline. In this type of environment, even issues more minor than these, like small cuts and dry skin, can become serious or even life-threatening if not properly cared for. "The primary problem we encountered was severely dry skin," says Dr. Bandow. "Dry skin is not only uncomfortable, but it leads to greater problems including fissures, or deep cracks that won’t heal, secondary infections like impetigo, and worsening of primary skin diseases like eczema or psoriasis."