What’s this rash?

Symptoms:

You’ve developed a rash around your wrists, fingers, ears and the back of your neck. Your skin is itchy, red, scaly and you’ve got blisters that weep, ooze, then become crusty. You’ve developed itchy, red bumps surrounded by a red halo on your lower legs and feet, which came up suddenly and are spreading to the rest of your body. You have a cat.

You have itchy red patches with blisters that break easily on your chest in line with the ribs. Your skin is extremely painful. You may also have a headache, fever and chills.

It could be:

Contact dermatitis

You’ve become sensitive to something you wear on your skin – one of the most common being nickel sensitivity caused by nickel used in jewellery. Flea bites The fleas from your cat have transferred themselves to chairs, sofas and cushions.

Shingles Very common in older people and very debilitating because of the pain. It’s caused by infection of chest nerves with the varicella zoster virus.

Stop it:

Don’t wear jewellery. See your doctor who can arrange for a skin-patch test to isolate what you’re sensitive to and give a steroid cream to subdue the inflammation. De-flea the cat, wash all your linen carefully on the hottest wash. See your doctor to confirm the diagnosis and for treatment if the flea bites are infected.

See your doctor as soon as possible for an antiviral drug, such as acyclovir, to lessen pain and speed recovery. NSAIDS will ease pain and swelling. Sometimes antidepressants can help treat the pain that may linger after shingles.