A rash on the toes could be a symptom of COVID-19 disease, which has alarmed dermatologists.
Dermatologist Esther Freeman expected to see skin conditions due to the pandemic: Various types of rashes occur when people become seriously ill from other viruses.
“But I didn’t expect it to be on the toes,” said Freeman of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, who in recent weeks has seen more toes on photo or video than in his entire career.
They are called “COVID toes” because they are red and swollen, sore, and sometimes itchy, something normally seen on the feet and hands of people who have spent a lot of time outdoors in the cold.
If your fingers are swollen, dermatologists recommend a remote consultation first and they will be the ones to decide whether you should stay home or get a coronavirus test.
The most common symptoms of coronavirus are fever, dry cough, and shortness of breath, and some people are contagious even though they never experience symptoms. But as this puzzling virus continues to spread, less common symptoms are reported, such as loss of smell, vomiting, and diarrhea, and increasingly, a variety of skin problems.
In a report, dermatologists evaluated 88 patients with COVID-19 at an Italian hospital and found that 1 in 5 had some type of skin symptom, mainly red rashes on the trunk. In another, Spanish doctors reported a series of 375 confirmed virus patients with a variety of skin ailments, from hives to chickenpox-like lesions and inflammation of the toes.
For some people, it is the first or even the only symptom they notice. Others see the toe problem at the same time or even a few weeks after experiencing the most common and severe COVID-19 symptoms.
It’s also appearing in young people, according to Dr. Amy Paller of Northwestern University, who is part of a pediatric dermatology registry that also collects images of patients’ feet.
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