ABC Medical Center > Diseases > Molluscum contagiosum

What is molluscum contagiosum?

4 May 2021

It is a highly contagious viral disease whose skin infection causes different-sized rounded pearly rashes, which, when scratched or injured, spread the infection to larger skin areas.

It spreads through physical contact with the infected person, by touching surfaces or objects with viral contamination, or through sexual intercourse.

Molluscum contagiosum has a higher incidence in children, but it can attack people with a depressed immune system in adulthood, whose condition will produce rapid development of the disease.

Despite not receiving treatment, rashes usually heal in a year or less, although they can also be removed by your doctor.

Signs and symptoms Molluscum contagiosum

This disease’s distinctive skin bumps have the following aspects:

  • Their size is variable, but they are generally small.
  • They usually have a hole or a darker spot in the center.
  • They are round, with a certain height and they usually have the same skin tone, although they can become more inflamed and reddish.
  • They are easily detached or injured by scratching, causing the infection to spread to other areas.
  • They cause itching.
  • In children, they usually appear on the face, neck, hands, and arms.
  • In adults, they appear in the abdomen, legs, and genitals, if it was a sexual infection.

How to prevent it:

Here are some recommendations to prevent the virus from spreading and infecting other people:

  • Perform hand hygiene on an ongoing basis.
  • Do not pick or scratch the rashes.
  • Do not lend or borrow personal use products such as clothes, towels, brushes, and others.
  • Refrain from sexual intercourse until you have fully healed.
  • Use soft and cool fabric clothing to cover the rashes.
  • Avoid shaving injured areas.
  • Keep skin moisturized.

Diagnosis and treatment Molluscum contagiosum

Once your doctor analyzes your symptoms and your medical history, they will perform a physical examination to make a diagnosis, although it may be advisable to take a sample of the rashes to be analyzed in the laboratory and confirm the diagnosis.

Typically, molluscum contagiosum infection tends to go away on its own within a few months or a year at the latest. In some cases, there may be flare-ups where rashes recur for several more years.

In certain cases, either by medical recommendation or by the patient’s request, they can be removed by various techniques, among which the following stand out:

  • Cryotherapy.
  • Skin smear.
  • Scalpel or tweezers.
  • Generation of blisters through specialized lotion drugs to detach the eruptions.
  • An oral medicine to help them go away.

At ABC Medical Center’s Internal Medicine Department, we offer health care services with the highest quality and safety, from the prevention, diagnosis, timely treatment, and monitoring of infectious, respiratory, endocrinological, dermatological, rheumatic, nephrological, gastrointestinal, and hematological pathologies of both chronic-degenerative diseases and acute conditions, through a comprehensive and multidisciplinary model.

Related centers and departments Molluscum contagiosum

Fuentes: 

  • elsevier.es
  • msdmanuals.com
  • mayoclinic.org
  • medlineplus.gov
  • topdoctors.es
  • cun.es
  • medigraphic.com
  • Olvera CV, González AAA, Pulido DN, et al. Molusco contagioso sobre tatuaje: reporte de caso. Dermatología Cosmética, Médica y Quirúrgica. 2018;16(1):28-31.
  • Román BR. Molusco Contagioso. Revisión y opciones de tratamiento. Arch Med Actual Trac Gen Inf. 2011;3(5):32-35.
  • Prado SA, Camas BJT. Molusco contagioso palpebral recurrente. Presentación de un caso. Rev Mex Oftalmol. 2008;82(5):327-330.
  • Pérez CS, Ramos GA, Bernal RE. Molusco contagioso e infección por el virus de inmunodeficiencia humana. Comunicación de dos casos. Rev Cent Dermatol Pascua. 2007;16(1):34-36.

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