admin
With input from Dr Monica Vasudev
India
healthysoch
New Delhi, November 07, 2020 :
Skin Conditions Persistence beyond 60 days in some cases, particularly with pernio/chilblains
- Benign, potentially painful skin conditions may persist for months among certain patients with COVID-19. Nearly 5% of patients with pernio, or chilblains, appeared to have long-hauler toe symptoms continuing for 60 days or longer. In two cases, the toe symptoms lasted for 4 to 5 months.
- The findings have been obtained from the international COVID-19 Dermatology Registry, hosted by the American Academy of Dermatology. The registry has accumulated data on over 1,000 patients from 41 countries. About 30% of the cases collected till date have laboratory confirmation of COVID-19. Investigators recently reported findings for the first 716 patients in the registry.
- Median duration for all symptoms was 12 days, while it was 7 days for the subset with laboratory-confirmed disease.
- The median duration ranged from 5 days for urticaria to 20 for papulosquamous eruptions and retiform purpura.
- The pernio subgroup was found to have the most outliers or long haulers; 5 of the 98 had toe symptoms that persisted for 60 days or more compared with one each in the subgroups with vesicular and papulosquamous eruptions.
- Patients with morbilliform rash had a median duration of 7 days; 2 out of 29 patients had symptoms lasting for nearly 30 days. Urticaria continued for 5 days, and in one patient, the symptom persisted for 30 days. Laboratory confirmation was tied to shorter symptom duration, except for papulosquamous eruptions, which had a median duration of 20 days.
- Urticarial and morbilliform eruptions were reported to be relatively short in duration, while pernio/chilblains and papulosquamous eruptions lasted longer.
1-in-6 people who had recovered from COVID-19 retested positive at least 2 weeks later
- Sore throat and rhinitis were found to be the only symptoms associated with a positive result.
- There are other reports of RNA detection after discharge, but this study noted that only two symptoms out of many (sore throat and rhinitis) were higher in those with PCR-positive status.
- The study was published online September 18 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Health care workers and their families account for 1 in 6, i.e., 17.2%, hospital admissions for COVID-19 in the working age population aged 18-65 years, reported a study from Scotland published online in BMJ.
Author : Dr KK Aggarwal , President CMAAO, HCFI and Past National President IMA
