COVID toes is a phenomenon that began to be documented in Italy and Spain at the start of winter while in the first wave of the novel coronavirus epidemic in 2020. The reviews was finding a high incidence of chilblains in the feet in people who have COVID-19. The news media locked on to these stories and lots of attention was given to them. A lot of fascination has been generated from the public and medical researchers in the whole phenomenon of COVID toes.

There are a number of pathophysiological processes connected to COVID-19, including issues with the blood, the cytokine storm and inflammatory functions which may impact the blood circulation in the toes that predispose the foot or toes to developing chilblains. Chilblains can be a poor response of the small blood vessels to adjustments to temperature. Should the small arteries tend not to react properly, waste products build up in the skin ultimately causing an inflamation related response that becomes the chilblain. It is really possible to see how COVID-19 could raise the chance of having a chilblain. A few early histological analyses from biopsies in the chilblains in those with COVID-19 did claim that there were elements of the infection within the tissues. However, various other research has reported there weren’t any, therefore it has started to become fairly challenging in regards to what the link involving the 2 entities are.

The problem is that with the passing of time and further investigation there's an escalating volume of studies that there is no connection involving COVID-19 and chilblains and the higher occurrence is merely a coincidence. There exists one report within the Nordic region that there has been virtually no rise in the amount of chilblains there. Other recent research by means of biopsies along with post-mortem autopsy are finding no COVID-19 components linked to the chilblains. There is certainly conjecture that the alleged increase in the prevalence in many nations was really a issue with the lifestyle modifications as a result of the lockdown during the epidemic and they aren't in reality part of the pathology process of the infection. These types of lifestyle changes during the lockdown can consist of getting a lot more inactive, probably the much less wearing of footwear, being more in contact with air-conditioning as well as the constant warmth indoors. These kinds of lifestyle changes throughout lockdown was probably a greater in countries such as Italy and Spain and the changes would not have been so much in the Nordic nations. In Nordic countries some might simply be better with managing the issues about temperature changes that are thought to be a risk factor in chilblains. This will simply be the cause of the various incidences in those two locations.