Dermatological Manifestations of the Novel Coronavirus: A Recent Perspective

Coronaviruses are RNA viruses that have become a major public health concern due to its accelerated geographic spread over the last two decades. Historically, it has caused two pandemics; the severe acute respiratory syndrome CoV (SARS-CoV-2) outbreak in 2002 and the middle east respiratory syndrome CoV (MERS-CoV) outbreak in 2012. The continuous evolution of coronaviruses was further highlighted with the emergence of the recent COVID-19 that emerged from China. The spike glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2 is essential for virus entry into cells and interacts with ACE-II receptors, which are broadly distributed on the human cell surface, particularly on alveolar type II cells (AT-2) and endothelium. The world is currently concerned about the 2019 novel CoV (SARS-CoV-2) that was discovered in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019. The patients had severe viral pneumonia and respiratory illness. Despite the fact that the virus is not dermatotropic, a number of skin conditions have arisen as a result of prolonged contact with personal protective equipment and elevated personal hygiene. In this chapter, we discuss structure, genome organisation, entry of CoVs into target cells, cutaneous manifestation that dermatologists may be aware and the preventive measures, outcome of the disease and the management.