Several dermatologists are studying a new possible coronavirus symptom. A population of patients with positive COVID-19 is found with mysterious swollen and purple colored toes when they were admitted in hospitals. This phenomenon was called 'COVID toes.' Is this a new symptom that everyone should be worried about?
A new COVID-19 symptom found
On Jun. 27, Saturday, Business Insider reported the newest and quite mysterious symptom of viral disease Coronavirus to its patients.
JAMA Dermatology journal started the research about this new symptom phenomenon on Thursday, June 25. According to its editor's note on the page, there seemed to be a connection with the virus and the sudden rise of people complaining about swollen toes amid the pandemic.
Due to the increased rate of patients with the symptom, this thing was unofficially called 'COVID toes.' This is when a person gets swollen and purple-colored toes that have similarities with frostbite. Unfortunately, in this case, it was due to the virus.
As explained, this symptom is suggested to be related to COVID-19 because of the general inflammation in the body or blood vessels. When a person gets COVID-19, he will have possible blood clots in skin vessels. If this happens, the possibility of a person having purple-colored toes and being swollen arises even more.
"Its close temporal appearance with the COVID-19 pandemic suggests that the two are associated," Dr. Claudia Hernandez, a dermatologist at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, and Dr. Anna Bruckner, a dermatologist at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, wrote. "Dermatologists must be aware of the protean cutaneous findings that are possibly associated with COVID-19, even if our understanding of their origins remains incomplete."
Thankfully, it is now confirmed unrealistic
No one wants to be a victim of the viral COVID-19 disease. So if you have swollen toes right now, should you be worried about having the virus? Another set of health experts don't think so.
It turns out that the assumption of COVID toes was not real, after all.
Spanish dermatologists conducted an experiment to figure out the said phenomenon. They discovered that only 29 out of 71 patients had purple, swollen toes in April. Due to this, they figured that the 'COVID toes' may not be considered a 'COVID-19 symptom' since patients with swollen toes might acquire it from the weather.
In fact, even the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) won't accept COVID toes as one of the disease's official symptoms.
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