Dermatological manifestation in coronavirus disease 2019 patients in Iraq

Al-Harbawi, A. L.; Al Chalabi, Q. S.; Alsalman, H. N.; Saeed, M. S.

BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) is a growing pandemic around the globe that was initially discovered in Wuhan in December 2019. Despite the relatively high incidence of cutaneous manifestations in COVID-19, their role in early recognition and disease progression has not been fully investigated. AIM: This study aims to report the possible incidence of the cutaneous lesion in COVID-19 patients and to describe various cutaneous manifestations and their correlation with other clinical features in COVID-19-positive patients to facilitate diagnosis and prognostications toward this virus. METHODS: This research was conducted as a cross-sectional study. Skin lesions photography and their analysis were collected by dermatologists from 18 cities in Iraq between September 2020 and January 2021. The data were processed using statistical package SPSS version 23. RESULTS: A total of 3117 confirmed COVID-19 cases were included in this study. Around 268 patients developed skin lesions with age ranged between 8 and 84 years. Of these skin lesions, 46.2% developed during the illness with minority erupting during the prodromal phase, while 38.8% appeared after hospitalization. The most common skin lesion was in the form of urticarial 36.74% followed by herpetic lesions 28.4%, maculopapular rash 11.74%, and the remainder being candidiasis, oral thrush, chilblains, and other skin conditions. The most affected area was the torso (46%), followed by limbs, face, fingers, and toes. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated the high incidence rate of dermatological lesions in different phases of COVID-19 with urticarial rash being the most frequent clinical pattern.