The Spanish health workers have discovered that foot sores similar to chickenpox or measles could be a new early symptom of the coronavirus (COVID 19).
The group has issued urgent circular warning healthcare workers to watch out for foot sores, especially among young adults.
"They are purple lesions (very similar to those of chickenpox, measles or chilblains) which usually appear on the toes and normally heal without leaving a mark," the Spanish General Council of Official Podiatrist Colleges said in an official statement.
The Spanish group has warned that the strange COVID 19 symptom has been observed mostly among young coronavirus patients in Italy, France, and Spain.
In the statement, the group revealed that more and more children and young adults were found to have the footsore before they turned positive for the coronavirus. However, similar symptoms were later "also been detected in some adults," the group said.
Meanwhile, the International Federation of Podologists released a case study about a 13-year-old boy who complained of foot sores.
The healthcare workers initially assumed that the boy was suffering from a spider bite, but he later started experiencing symptoms of the coronavirus. Doctors later discovered that his coronavirus-stricken sister and mother had a fever, cough, and trouble breathing six days before the lesions on his feet appeared.
"This dermatological sign could be useful for identifying children and adolescents with minimal forms of infection, but potential sources of further infection," the case study concluded.
The case had come to light on March 29 and since then there have been several similar reports that have appeared of patients with foot sores.
In the light of the development, the Spanish General Council of Official Podiatrist Colleges has now issued instructions to parents and healthcare workers.
"When these cases are detected by parents or relatives, the child should be kept in quarantine, isolated, and a topical corticosteroid can be applied and temperature control can be carried out, always with the reassurance that these are benign lesions with favorable evolution, but acting with caution being a possible asymptomatic carrier," the group said.
Though both Spanish General Council of Official Podiatrist Colleges and the International Federation of Podiatrists have observed the lack of scientific studies on the matter. The group, however, has asked all healthcare workers to be on alert and vigilant when they come across patients with foot sores and have asked them to treat them as possible COVID 19 patients.
