A. Shors
JAAD Case Reports, 2020
Fig 1. V2 herpes zoster occurring on day 8 of coronavirus 2019 symptoms. CASE REPORT A 49-year-old otherwise healthy woman was treated by telemedicine consultation for a new facial rash. She reported that during the past week she had felt unwell, with 1 episode of fever to 38.88C (101.88F), which quickly defervesced. She also experienced aches and chills, headache, and profound fatigue. She denied sore throat, cough, shortness of breath, anosmia, or ageusia, and had no history of diabetes, hypertension, or cardiac disease. On the seventh day of symptoms, she developed a mildly itchy rash on the trunk. The following day, several dysesthetic papules and vesicles appeared on the cutaneous portion of her left upper lip, and during the next 24 hours edema and similar lesions appeared throughout the V2 dermatome. Based on the patient’s self-photograph (Fig 1), a presumptive diagnosis of herpes zoster was made, and she began receiving valacyclovir 1 g 3 times daily within 12 hours of the initial eruption. The patient was also advised to present for consideration of COVID19 testing based on her other symptoms. On followup telephone visit 48 hours later, she noted that her COVID-19 reverse transcriptionepolymerase chain reaction test result was positive. The eruption was slow to respond to therapy and persisted after 7 days of treatment (Fig 2). During this time, the patient
Cited by 16 publications.
Field of study: Medicine