Molluscum Contagiosum - Molluscum Contagiosum

Molluscum Contagiosum

Molluscum contagiosum is a skin disease created by the virus Molluscum contagiosum. It provides benign raised bumps, or lesions, on the top layers of your skin.

The little bumps are normally painless. They leave on their own and rarely leave marks when they’re left untreated. The period of time the virus lasts varies for everybody, but the bumps can live from two months to four years.

Molluscum contagiosum is spread by direct connection with someone who has it or by affecting an object infected with the virus, such as a towel or a piece of clothing.

Medication and medical treatments are available, but treatment isn’t required in most cases. The virus can be harder to treat if you have a weakened immune system.

molluscum contagiosum

molluscum contagiosum
molluscum contagiosum

What are the symptoms of molluscum contagiosum?

If you or your child comes into touch with the M. contagiosum virus, you may not see signs of disease for up to six months. The normal incubation time is within two and seven weeks.

You may regard the idea of a small group of painless injuries. These bumps can look alone or in a spot of as many as 20. They’re normally:

  • very short, bright, and even in appearance.
  • flesh-colored, white, or pink.
  • firm and shaped like a dome with a hole or dimple in the center.
  • filled with a basic core of smooth material.
  • within 2 to 5 millimeters in diameter, or between the size of the head of a pin and the size of an eraser on the top of a line.
  • present everywhere except on the palms of your hands or the soles of your feet — especially on the face, tummy, torso, arms, and legs of children, or the inside thigh, genitals, and abdomen of adults.

But, if you have a weakened safe system, you may have symptoms that are more important. Lesions may be as large as 15 millimeters in diameter, which is on the size of a dime. The cracks appear more often on the face and are typically resistant to medication.

What are the causes of molluscum contagiosum?

You can get a molluscum contagiosum by discussing the lesions on the skin of a person who has this disease. Children can transmit the virus through normal play with another child.

Teens and adults are more likely to contract it into a sexual connection. You can also become affected during contact sports that include touching bare skin, such as fight or football.

The virus can remain on surfaces that have been treated by the skin of a person with a molluscum contagiosum. So it’s possible to contract the virus by handling towels, clothing, toys, or other items that have been infected.

Sharing sports stuff that someone’s bare skin has touched can also cause the transference of this virus. The virus can remain on the equipment to be transferred to another person. This involves items such as baseball gloves, wrestling mats, also football helmets.


If you have molluscum contagiosum, you make to spread the infection through your body. You can transfer the virus from one part of your body to another by touching, scratching, or shaving a bump and then touching a different part of your body.

What are the risk factors for molluscum contagiosum?
Anyone can get a molluscum contagiosum, but some groups of people are more likely to convert infected than others. These groups involve:

children within the ages of 1 and 10
people who live in tropical climes
people with weakened immune systems caused by circumstances such as organ transplantation or cancer treatments
people who should atopic dermatitis, which is a basic form of the disease that causes scaly and itchy rashes
people who engage in contact sports, such as wrestling or football, where simple skin-to-skin touch is common.
How is molluscum contagiosum diagnosed?
Because the skin cracks caused by molluscum contagiosum have a different appearance, your physician often can diagnose the disease by merely looking at the injured area. A skin scraping or biopsy can establish the analysis.


It’s normally unnecessary to treat molluscum contagiosum, but you should always have your physician examine any skin lesions that last higher than a few days. A certain diagnosis of molluscum contagiosum will order out other causes for the lesions, such as skin cancer, chickenpox, about warts.

How is molluscum contagiosum treated?

In maximum cases, if you have a strong immune system, it won’t be needed to treat the lesions produced by molluscum contagiosum. The bumps will fade away without medical interference.

But, some circumstances may prove treatment. You may be a candidate for medication if:

  • your lesions are long and located on your face and neck
  • you have an actual skin disease such as atopic dermatitis
  • you have severe concerns about spreading the virus

The most powerful treatments for molluscum contagiosum are made by a doctor. These involve cryotherapy, curettage, laser treatment, and topical treatment:

  • When cryotherapy, the doctor freezes each hit with liquid nitrogen.
  • When curettage, the doctor enters the bump and rubs it off the skin with a small tool.
  • During laser treatment, the doctor uses a laser to destroy each bump.
  • During topical treatment, the doctor applies cosmetics containing acids or chemicals to the bumps to induce peeling of the first layers of the skin.
  • In any case, these techniques can be painful and produce scarring. Anesthesia may also be important.


Since these techniques involve using each bump, a procedure may require further than one sitting. If you have many big bumps, further treatment may be needed every three to six weeks unto the bumps leave. New bumps may appear as the real ones are treated.

In many cases, your doctor may appoint the following medications:

  • trichloroacetic acid.
  • local podophyllotoxin cream (Condylox).
  • cantharidin (Cantharone), which is taken from the blister beetle and used by your doctor.
  • imiquimod (Aldara).



If your protected system is weakened by a condition such as HIV or by drugs such as those used for treating cancer, it may be important to treat molluscum contagiosum. Successful treatment is more challenging for people with weakened immune systems than it is for those with healthy immune systems.

Antiretroviral treatment is the most effective treatment for people with HIV if they contract molluscum contagiosum because that can work to strengthen the immune system to resist the virus.

It’s important to talk to your doctor before trying any treatments for molluscum contagiosum.

What is the long-term outlook for people with molluscum contagiosum?

A molluscum contagiosum virus will usually go away on its own if your immune method is healthy. Typically, this occurs regularly within 6 to 12 months and without scarring. But, for some, it may take from a few months up to a few years for the bumps to leave. The infection can be more determined and last even longer for people with safe system problems.

Once the lesions disappear, the M. contagiosum virus is no longer present in your body. If this happens, you can’t spread the virus to others or to other parts of your body. You’ll see also bumps only if you fit infected again.

Unlike with chickenpox, if you’ve become molluscum contagiosum once, you’re not guarded against being infected again.

How can molluscum contagiosum be prevented?

The real way to prevent getting molluscum contagiosum is to skirt touching the skin of another person who has the disease. Following these instructions can also help you prevent the spread of the disease:

  • Practice effective hand washing with warm water and soap.
  • Teach children in proper hand-washing techniques since they’re also likely to use pressure in play and interaction with others.
  • Avoid sharing special items. This includes towels, clothing, hairbrushes, or bar soaps.
  • Avoid using shared sports equipment that may have come in personal contact with someone else’s bare skin.
  • Avoid hitting at or touching areas of your skin where the bumps exist.
  • Keep the bumps clear and covered to prevent yourself or others from touching them and developing the virus.
  • Avoid shaving or applying electrolysis where the bumps are located.

  • Avoid sexual contact if you have lumps in the genital area.

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