Expert of the Project Ask the Doctor: Any Allergic Reaction Can Now Be a COVID-19 Symptom

The Rinat Akhmetov Foundation’s project Ask the Doctor continues to inform Ukrainians about the treatment of COVID-19. Healthcare experts report about the situation related to the spread of the disease, as well as give recommendations and answer questions from the audience. More than 11 million people have watched the project on the Foundation’s digital platforms. This time, the project’s expert was Yuriy Bisyuk, a Doctor of Medical Sciences, a professor of the Department of Dermatovenereology, Allergology, Clinical and Laboratory Immunology of Shupyk National Healthcare University of Ukraine.

According to him, the coronavirus can manifest itself in the form of various kinds of allergic reactions.

‘Utterly classic allergy symptoms can be a manifestation of the coronavirus. That is why it is very important to consult a doctor in time as the doctor will be able to quickly carry out a differential diagnosis and accurately establish the disease,’ said Yuriy Bisyuk.
As an example, he explained that skin rashes can be one of the manifestations of the coronavirus:

‘There are a lot of such cases when a patient turns to a dermatologist with symptoms of a skin disease such as hives or dermatitis, eczema, etc. And if we do not understand the reason for their origin, then we should think about the coronavirus in the first place. A skin disorder can be its only symptom, without any other manifestations.’

According to the expert, some patients with allergies have lighter forms of the disease. However, this does not apply to all allergy patients.
‘For example, in people with severe bronchial asthma, the coronavirus is especially difficult and they require oxygen therapy.’
At the same time, Yuriy Bisyuk emphasized that people with allergies are exposed to the same risk of infection as healthy people.

‘Moreover, it happens that people with allergies may not even feel that they fell ill. Well, they might just sneeze, as usual. And there are a lot of such cases. That is, a person is lost in symptoms. For example, I had patients who turned to me with complaints of excruciating hives, dermatitis. And very often they had confirmed coronavirus diagnosis without such a classic symptom as fever. At the same time, they had quite light forms of the disease, without any particular complications.’

In addition, Yuriy Bisyuk said that after recovering from the disease previously healthy people can acquire any allergies.

‘The likelihood that COVID-19 can trigger the development of an allergic disease is very high. After all, our immune system reacts very vigorously to the coronavirus and this can trigger disruptions in its work. This is exactly the moment when allergic diseases or autoimmune diseases can set in, which is much worse,’ underlined professor Yuriy Bisyuk.

The project Ask the Doctor is a weekly online meeting with doctors who talk about the symptoms of the coronavirus, dietary preferences for patients, the latest global trends in the treatment of COVID-19, and many more topics. Earlier, questions from the audience during the project’s live broadcasts were answered by such leading healthcare experts as Kateryna Amosova, a cardiologist, an associate member of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine, a member of the European Society of Cardiology; Yevhen Komarovskyi, a famous paediatrician of the country; Serhiy Komisarenko, a biochemist and researcher; Oleksandr Zaika, an immunologist of the Public Health Centre of the Ministry of Health; Oleh Chaban, a psychiatrist, a Doctor of Medical Sciences, a professor; Serhiy Dubrov, the President of the Association of Anaesthesiologists of Ukraine, and other experts. 

Recordings of previous broadcasts are available for watching on the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation’s Facebook page, as well as on its YouTube account.