Viral skin infections
Several common childhood viral infections cause widespread exanthems (rashes):
- Measles (morbilli)
- German measles (rubella)
- Chickenpox (varicella)
- Fifth disease (erythema infectiosum, due to parvovirus)
- Roseola (erythema subitum, due to herpes virus 6)
- Infectious mononucleosis or glandular fever (Ebstein Barr virus)
- Enterovirus infections
Other viral syndromes include:
- Pityriasis rosea, at present of unknown cause (perhaps herpes 6 & 7)
- Hand foot and mouth disease, due to coxsackie infection
- Gianotti-Crosti syndrome (papular acrodermatitis of childhood) is most often caused by infectious mononucleosis (Epstein Barr Virus) or hepatitis B.
- Laterothoracic exanthem (asymmetric periflexural exanthem of childhood or APEC), cause uncertain
- Haemorrhagic fevers caused by togavirus, bunyavirus and arenavirus are potentially fatal, with bleeding into the skin
- Smallpox, a deadly disease hopefully now eradicated by widespread vaccination
- Cowpox
- Chikungunya fever, dengue and dengue haemorrhagic fever (due to arboviruses). Other haemorrhagic fevers include Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (nairovirus), Lassa fever (arenavirus), Ebola haemorrhagic fever and Marburg haemorrhagic fever (filovirus).
- Epidermodysplasia verruciformis is a genetic disorder in which there are numerours viral warts and predisposition to skin cancer
- Various skin complaints are more common with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infections (AIDS) including Kaposi sarcoma
- Rickettsial diseases are due to organisms classified between bacteria and virusues.
- Yellow fever is a serious flavivirus infection, which is characterised by yellow skin and eyes due to jaundice.
Localised skin conditions caused by viral infections include:
- Herpes simplex (cold sores and genital herpes), eczema herpeticum
- Herpes zoster (shingles)
- Herpangina / vesicular stomatitis (oral ulcers)
- Molluscum contagiosum
- Viral warts (verrucas, genital warts or condylomas and squamous cell papillomas)
- Orf
- Milker's nodules
In the future, we expect to classify more skin conditions as viral in origin as more sophisticated tests for viral particles become available.
Viral infections including viral hepatitis sometimes give rise to: