Cases of pityriasis rosea, a fairly common skin rash, dropped significantly during the mask wearing days of COVID-19. But now that fewer are wearing masks in public cases of the skin condition have gone back up, the Washington Post reported June 13.
The rash's disappearing act timed closely to the increase in public masking and social distancing for COVID-19 puzzled dermatologists, so they dug into a database with information from 3 million patients who had skin conditions to understand why.
The origins of pityriasis rosea have largely been unknown, but from their study researchers were able to say with more confidence that an infectious agent could be at play.
The rash is not dangerous and with prescription of a steroid cream typically clears up rather quickly, the Washington Post reported, but the condition can be uncomfortable for those who are diagnosed with it as it is said to be "extremely itchy."
Just as there were fewer cases of enteroviruses, rhinoviruses, and adenoviruses diagnosed during the pandemic, researchers suspected a possible virus-like transmission could be how pityriasis rosea spreads, they wrote in their study, published March 2022 in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.
"The observed reduction in the diagnoses of [pityriasis rosea] must be considered in the context that [it] has a relatively mild disease course and dermatologists may not have encountered this condition during the pandemic because of office closures and patient preference; however, the rapid implementation of telemedicine overcame some of these limitations," they wrote.
While the data points to a possible origin of pityriasis rosea, researchers also said that additional investigation into its cause must be done to say for sure.