Graphical abstract
Sir,
A 49-year-old man was admitted to our hospital in late March 2020, 6 days after onset of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). He received remdesivir in a clinical study. Oxygen supplementation was not required. Defervescence occurred 12 days after onset, and he was discharged 21 days after symptom onset. In mid-May 2020, he noticed alopecia on his head. He started taking self-imported minoxidil 5 mg/day and finasteride 1 mg/day in June 2020, and was still taking these medications at the time of writing. Alopecia began to improve in August 2020. Figure 1 shows the condition of his hair 3 months and 1 year after COVID-19.
Figure 1.
Hair condition of the patient 3 months (left) and 1 year (right) after coronavirus disease 2019.
This course is consistent with telogen effluvium, a type of alopecia that occurs several months after various physical and psychological burdens (Paus and Cotsarelis, 1999). Previous studies have reported alopecia of varying severity in three patients (Rizzetto et al., 2020) and 10 patients (Mieczkowska et al., 2021) after COVID-19. Our case did not need supplemental oxygen, but the psychological burden of isolation, limited information about COVID-19 (Kutsuna, 2020), anxiety about the illness becoming severe, and prejudice of people following hospital discharge may have triggered alopecia. The medications may have contributed slightly to the improvement seen, but rapid progression is inconsistent to androgenic alopecia. Further research will enhance our understanding of the pathogenesis of alopecia after COVID-19.
Conflicts of interest
None declared.
Funding
This work was supported by the Health, Labour and Welfare Policy Research Grants, Research on Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases and Immunization (Grant No. 20HA1006) and Japan’s National Centre for Global Health and Medicine (Grant No. 20A2003D).
Ethical approval
Not required. Written informed consent was obtained from the patient.
References
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