Strange seasonal rash - may not be allergy

[mikeru80]

37 year old male with a strange rash i hope someone can clue me in on..

I get warm red spots that itch a lot. often long stripes.. they can come everywhere, arms, legs, body, neck. if i dont irritate them too much they go away after an hour or so and reappear somewhere else later a bit later.

- It seems to start in January and continue into may or so the last 3 years (rules out food allergies, clothing etc)
- I had them while in south east asia (rules out cold weather and most seasonal stuff as its different there)
- They are there both day and night.

Zyrtec seems to help, but I need to talk 3-4 24 hr zyrtec daily.

I saw a dermatologist who said it was stress related - but i dont believe it is for several reasons :

- Why would I only be stressed in those months?

and most important of all - it seems that my girlfriend has them now too as well as my daughter, so seems like it can spread?

any idea what this can be? been searching like crazy and doctors have been no help!

[robinfinity]

any chance of an answer to this? I get the same sort of rash as the pics except mine stay around for a week or three. I get them every spring and fall and have been getting them for several years now.

[mikeru80]

I posted 3 pictures to my photo page here (they are set as public viewable).

http://www.medhelp.org/user_photos/list/771876?personal_page_id=417305

they are not the best but should give an idea?

Also I should mention that if i dont take zyrtec i have 'dermatographica' in that i can literally draw pacman and ghosts on my arm and they show up as red lines or welts 3-4 minutes later..
again all this seems to be seasonal only february to may or so..

[mikeru80]

Thanks!! I am not sure this is what it is.. i can get somewhat large red areas.. like the size of a book (although differently shaped)? And it seeems more dominant on the legs/calves/thighs/arms than the elbows/joints/finger webbing and other areas favored by scabies? I'll try and upload some pictures..

[Dr. Kokil Mathur]

Hi
Thanks for writing to the forum!
This looks like a case of scabies as it is contagious and there are long stripes that are caused by the female mite causing this allergic parasitic reaction. You can gather more information about this on: http://www.cdc.gov/scabies/symptoms.html
Please discuss this with your doctor. Please let me know if there is any thing else and do keep me posted. Take care!