The young man had to constantly scratch himself. The 21-year-old came to the skin clinic with excruciating itching. Red nodules covered his chest, upper back, and shoulders. Even during the dermatological examination, he couldn’t keep his hands off his skin. Does he have an allergy? He doesn’t take any medication, he said, and he didn’t have any new skin care either. Some pustules seemed to have healed and had left brown pigment spots. The doctors biopsied a piece of skin, stained it and cut it into slices in order to examine the tissue under a microscope.

Access to all STERN PLUS content and articles from the print magazine

ad-free

Already registered?