Dermatitis trigger more likely stress

Dear Dr. Roach: I have been using a lot of hand sanitizer and a lot of disinfecting wipes. Do these sanitizing products get absorbed through the skin and build up in our bodies? I ask becauseIhave comedownwith a difficult case of seborrheic dermatitis on my face. My facial skin has always been hypersensitive.— A.H.

Hand sanitizers use alcohol to kill bacteria and disable viruses. The alcohols used in approved sanitizers are not well absorbed through the skin, but if they were, your body is able to metabolize the small amounts that come through.

Seborrheic dermatitis is a common skin condition. Although its cause is not wellunderstood, it is clearly triggered by stress in many people. Any dry skin can cause problems, so using some hand lotion might help.

Dear Dr. Roach: Are there different antibody tests for the West Coast and East Coast types of virus? We’ve read that as COVID traveled through Europe, it mutated slightly before it got to New York, but the California version came straight from China. I had an antibody test on Cape Cod six months after being very sick with a COVID-like virus.— S.K.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus, like all viruses, creates a huge number of replicas of itself when it infects a person. However, the enzyme used to replicate the virus is not perfect, and there are small numbers of errors during viral replication. These are technically knownas mutations.

The differences are very slight, and so far, there have been no major changes in how dangerous the virus is, whether it might be susceptible to certain antiviral treatments or whether it would turn a blood test positive.

Your reasons for a negative SARS-CoV-2 antibody test are much more likely than it being a new strain that doesn’t show up on testing.