What is Covid toes?

New Delhi: Many patients complained a blood clotting in their toes, which later turned out to be a symptom of Covid. Most of the patients who witnessed this were asymptomatic.

Speaking about this Dr. Mugdha Tapdiya, Senior Consultant at Fortis Hospital said, "For Covid toes the theory is that of thrombosis, which means blood clotting. These clots of the blood goes into capillary, which is the thinnest part of the artery, and get stuck there, which is when there is a red coloured vision initially which gradually becomes blue and black and is very painful."

Various patients shared photos of red toes on social media, who later turned out to be asymptomatic, according to medical experts. Covid toes were first noticed by doctors in Spain among many children who were having red spots on the toes with itching and without any Covid symptoms.

"It was later discussed that various kind of skin issues were coming with Covid-19, where these covid toes are very common. Then medical experts searched for it and found out that many people had pneumonia but no one had this," added the doctor. She herself witnessed a case as early as March and said that it is such a common issue that nobody thought it could be related to Covid. "There are reports in India as well where cases of covid toes have emerged. I remember seeing a lady of around 40 who had similar complaints. This was in the beginning of March and now when these things are coming up, I feel I could have looked into it. But that time testing was restricted," she added.

Meanwhile, Dr. Deeksha Mittal Clinical Scientist at Department of Nephrology at All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) said that the symptoms are not new and that there is no difference between Covid patients and Covid toes patients. "Covid 1 and Covid toes are there from Day 1, it's not emerging now. The only thing is we were getting more cases of Covid 1 and concentrated on people with travel history and community spread. The symptoms, the treatment and diagnosis everything is the same. The only difference is that in the genes, there is capsular variation in that, but it is very minor," she said.

She added that patients who had a history of lung diseases are witnessing it more, however there is no concrete theory to prove that.