The most common signs of infection by the COVID-19 infection are a dry cough, fever and problem breathing, but researchers are finding they are far from being the only indications of the viral infection.
Skin specialists are reporting a new symptom, dubbed “COVID toes,” that they are seeing in some patients who have the new coronavirus.
Patients establish blue or purple lesions on the feet or toes that look like bruising or a rash.Dr. Ebbing Lautenbach told USA Today that the sores are “normally painful to touch and might have a hot burning experience.” Lautenbach works as chief of infectious illness at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Medicine.
The sores are being seen in individuals who are asymptomatic, or who have no other symptoms of the COVID-19 virus.
“This is a manifestation that takes place early on in the illness, suggesting you have this first, then you advance,” Lautenbach said. “In some cases this may be your first hint that they have actually COVID when they don’t have any other signs.”
Susan Wilcox, chief of critical look after the emergency situation department at Massachusetts General Hospital, told USA Today that she started to see the purple sores on the most seriously ill COVID-19 clients. Wilcox said she thinks the sores are brought on by inflammation from an extreme infection. The inflammation causes small embolism in the capillary in the feet.
Wilcox stated the sores are most typically seen in clients who have actually developed intense breathing distress syndrome (ARDS). The sickest COVID-19 patients establish ARDS.
For others, “COVID toes” disappear within 10 days and the individual suffers from no other symptoms of the virus.
Dr. Tracey Vlahovic, associate professor of podiatry at Temple University in Philadelphia, told NBC’s “TODAY” program that “There’s no one-to-one correlation” in between having the lesions and establishing other COVID-19 symptoms.
The sores seem more common in children and young people, Dr. Lindy Fox, teacher of dermatology at the University of California, San Francisco, told “TODAY,” however it’s “not special” to them, Fox added.
