Read more about this disease, some with Classification – Types – Signs and symptoms – Genetics – Pathophysiology – Diagnosis – Screening – Prevention – Treatment and management – Cures and much more, some including pictures and video when available.
Molluscum contagiosum (MC) is a viral infection of the skin or occasionally of the mucous membranes. MC has no animal reservoir, infecting only humans, as did smallpox. However, there are different pox viruses that infect many other mammals. The infecting human MC virus is a DNA poxvirus called the molluscum contagiosum virus (MCV). There are four types of MCV, MCV-1 to -4; MCV-1 is the most prevalent and MCV-2 seen usually in adults and often sexually transmitted. About one in six young people are infected at some time with MC.[citation needed] The infection is most common in children aged one to ten years old.[1] MC can affect any area of the skin but is most common on the body, arms, and legs. It is spread through direct contact or shared items such as clothing or towels.
In adults, molluscum infections are often sexually transmitted and usually affect the genitals, lower abdomen, buttocks, and inner thighs. In rare cases, infections are also found on the lips, mouth, and eyelids.
The time from infection to the appearance of lesions ranges from 2 week[citation needed] to 6 months, with an average incubation period of 6 weeks. Diagnosis is made on the clinical appearance; the virus cannot routinely be cultured.
Molluscum contagiosum lesions are flesh-colored, dome-shaped, and pearly in appearance. They are often 1–5 millimeters in diameter, with a dimpled center. They are generally not painful, but they may itch or become irritated. Picking or scratching the bumps may lead to further infection or scarring. In about 10% of the cases, eczema develops around the lesions. They may occasionally be complicated by secondary bacterial infections. In some cases the dimpled section may bleed once or twice.[citation needed]
The viral infection is limited to a localized area on the topmost layer of the epidermis.[2] Once the virus containing head of the lesion has been destroyed, the infection is gone. The central waxy core contains the virus. In a process called autoinoculation, the virus may spread to neighboring skin areas. Children are particularly susceptible to auto-inoculation, and may have widespread clusters of lesions.
Individual molluscum lesions may go away on their own and are reported as lasting generally from 6 to 8 weeks,[3] to 2 or 3 months.[4] However via autoinoculation, the disease may propagate and so an outbreak generally lasts longer with mean durations variously reported as 8 months,[3] to about 18 months,[5][6] and with a range of durations from 6 months to 5 years.[4][6]
Treatment is often unnecessary[7] depending on the location and number of lesions, and no single approach has been convincingly shown to be effective.[8] Nonetheless, treatment may be sought after for the following reasons:
Many health professionals recommend treating bumps located in the genital area to prevent them from spreading.[6] The virus lives only in the skin and once the growths are gone, the virus is gone and cannot be spread to others. Molluscum contagiosum is not like herpes viruses, which can remain dormant in the body for long periods and then reappear. Thus, when treatment has resulted in elimination of all bumps, the infection has been effectively cured and will not reappear unless the patient is reinfected. [9] In practice, it may not be easy to see all of the molluscum contagiosum bumps. Even though they appear to be gone, there may be some that were overlooked. If this is the case, one may develop new bumps by autoinoculation, despite their apparent absence.
[tubepress mode=’tag’, tagValue=’Molluscum contagiosum’]