COVID May Cause a “Rash” in the Mouth
Article written by Dr. Daliah.
Researchers from Madrid, Spain have reported a new symptom of COVID-19.
COVID-19 has been known to cause viral exanthems, or rashes outside the body.
Now researchers are describing an enanthem, or rash inside the body.
In JAMA Dermatology, study authors report examining 21 COVID positive patients with skin rash (exanthem) and finding 29% with lesions in their mouths.
The enanthem was classified as: petechial, macular, macular with petechiae, or erythematovesicular.
These classifications describe a pattern to the rash ranging from size, texture, and appearance.
Petechial rashes, as seen in the figure to the right, appear to look like small pinpoint blood vessel ruptures. These can occur during viral illness.
Study authors found these lesions more often in adults and caution clinicians to suspect viral etiology, as opposed to a drug reaction, when seeing this pattern of rash.
Although most hospitalized patients do get thorough exams, study authors fear some providers, due to exposure risk, may fail to pick up the enanthem.
This is a developing story….
