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)
- 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 sometimes give rise to: