The frostbite on the toes observed in some people exposed to SARS-CoV-2 would not be yet another symptom of the virus, nor the sign of an attenuated form of the disease, but the expression of an innate resistance. This is a hypothesis that describes the Swiss medical journal (RMS) in its edition from last week.
Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, dermatologists around the world have reported unexplained cases of pseudo-frostbite in the toes, known as ‘covid toes’ (Covid-toes). “All of these observations suggest that the people concerned represent a population resistant to infection by SARS-CoV-2 [le virus responsable de l’épidémie], and that the mechanism of this resistance would involve a robust innate antiviral defense ”, affirms in the RMS Professor Michel Gilliet, Head of the Department of Dermatology and Venereology at the Vaud University Hospital Center (CHUV).
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