Coronavirus is causing skin reactions — Look what the Dermatologists are saying

It is not easy to keep up with the constantly evolving symptoms of Coronavirus. COVID-19 primarily seems to affect the lungs, but doctors are reported it havoc an impact on other body parts too, including the senses, the heart, the brain, and now on the skin.

“We don’t really know what’s happening, We know that most people who are fighting this [virus] are seeing it for the first time, so the immune system is going crazy,” told Carrie Kovarik, MD, associate professor of dermatology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania to Yahoo Life.

“What I would want to emphasize is that there are multiple skin reactions at this point of COVID-19 infection,” Dawn Davis, MD, chair of the clinical dermatology division at the Mayo Clinic, tells Yahoo Life.

He also said that it’s unclear whether the rasher will appear only once or can repeat. Any person who is experiencing these rashes with no other COVID-19 symptoms, they should get the tests done at the nearest hospital before the condition worsens.

Here are the newest symptoms of COVID-19:

In This Article hide

1 A “dengue fever-like rash” – large red patches
2 Hives-like rash
3 Discoloration of the skin in a tree pattern

A “dengue fever-like rash” – large red patches

Davis told that initially, these evolve as rashes that resemble dengue rashes

“It starts out as small, mild to moderately red bumps on the skin, and as they increase in density, they cluster together into large patches on the skin,” says Davis. “What’s interesting about this rash — similar to dengue fever — is that there will be what we call an ‘island of sparing’ where certain patches of the skin won’t have any involvement.”

In some cases, rashes started appearing before other respiratory symptoms pf Coronavirus.

Hives-like rash

“Some patients with COVID-19 have presented with small to medium hives that spread over their body and then expand in size — although for some patients they stay the same in size,” says Davis. “People think they’ve gotten into something that they’re sensitive to when actually it’s their manifestation of the virus.”

“It’s a sign on your skin that your immune system is revved up — and that is indeed what’s happening in COVID.”

Discoloration of the skin in a tree pattern

This is a sign of immune systems’ response to the Coronavirus. “Some patients with COVID are getting a livedo pattern on their skin, and that’s when it looks faint as if you’ve been embarrassed or cold or scared, but some patients have a more intense livedo rash, meaning that it’s just redder and appears coarser,” says Davis. “Then, because it’s darker, it can appear similar to vasculitis or your blood vessels get inflamed.”