COVID FEET/ TOES: A NEW AND UNUSUAL SYMPTOM OF COVID-19 IS FOUND IN INFECTED PEOPLE

India has been seeing an upsurge of asymptomatic cases in COVID-19. While countries from across the globe are trying to trace out some other common list of symptoms to identify the virus, a new and latest symptom is expected to be frost-bite like bumps on the toes, or in the feet.

“It’s called a ‘Covid’ ‘feet’, says Dr.Subramaniam Swaminathan of Gleneagles Global Hospital. “At least 20% of the patients in Italy had it. Doctors in Finland, Spain, the U.S., and Canada also reported red patches and itchy boils in patients. We should start looking for them here too,” he said. Although theoretically, doctors have found multiple reasons for this symptom, they are yet to circle down to one.

Dr. Lindy Fox from California told Business Insider that inflamed and purple toes are not necessarily an indication of the virus. However, she suggests that people with this symptom must get tested to check if the patients are currently infected and also get an antibody test to check if they were previously infected. This is because some have shown this symptom after recovering.

Dr. Maya Vedamurthy, a senior dermatologist in Chennai has also said that people with this symptom even without other symptoms such as fever or cough must get tested for the infection. Dr. Ilan Schwartz, an infectious disease specialist in Alberta, recently posted a picture of this new symptom and the post has received great attention.

A telltale sign of #COVID19: pernio / pseudo-chilblains

Painful, swollen and erythematous tips of toes (resembling frostbite).#DermTwitter #IDTwitter pic.twitter.com/4zplwrUiQ2

— Ilan Schwartz MD PhD (@GermHunterMD) April 14, 2020

“This virus is nasty and tricky. It shows itself differently in different people,” said Dr. A. Ramasubramanian of Apollo Hospitals. He also expressed that he wouldn’t be surprised if such unusual symptoms tend to increase in number, as it only proves how little we know of this deadly virus.