A very frequent infection on children's skin they are known as contagious mollusks, Or simply mollusks.
They are lesions that appear on the skin caused by a virus of the family of poxviruses, the Molluscipoxvirus Molluscum Contagiosum.
Their appearance is very characteristic, therefore they are very easy to recognize. The mollusk looks like a pearlite with a size between 2 and 5 millimeters in diameter. Small papules appear that then enlarge and become pearly-colored nodules with a depression in the center.
Although they can leave anywhere on the body, they appear more frequently on the face, neck, armpits, arms and hands, except on the palms of the hands and feet, and less frequently on the genitals. They don't hurt, but they can itch and are more frequent in children with atopic skin.
Mollusc contagion
It is a very contagious type of virus that spreads by skin-to-skin contact, that is, a child can get it by direct contact with the lesions of an infected child, and even the same child can self-contagious when scratching and transporting it to other parts of your body.
The infection spreads especially in swimming pools because being exposed skin is more likely for children to become infected, or when touching the lesions they can spread the virus on the skin of another child.
Therefore, the best prevention is to avoid exposure to children who suffer from it, as well as to treat mollusks as soon as the first lesions appear to prevent the spread.
Treatment of molluscs contagious
Early treatment of mollusks is important to prevent them from spreading to other areas of the skin.
The lesions are removed by the doctor by scraping with a spoon-like instrument. In some cases, cryotherapy (destruction by freezing) is chosen and it takes about ten days to disappear.
If left untreated, molluscum lesions usually disappear in 2 or 3 months without scarring, although they may reappear months later.
