A Challenging Case of Pneumonia and Vasculitis

Abstract

An elderly (76 years old) immunocompromised Iraqi male had carcinoma of colon stage 3c without metastasis operated for seven years before, plus chemotherapy for one year. In winter 2022, this man sorrowed from a sore throat, voice change, and a rise in temperature (37.4 C). Later, dry cough developed in subsequent hours and deteriorated quickly to yellow-colored sputum, plus an increment in his temperature (37.8 C). After that, the patient had non-specific, non-itchy, follicular erythematous papules. The rash varies in size and shape, distributed in the abdomen, lower back, and legs. Two physicians proved pneumonia by clinical means, plus two successive chest x-rays, but the patient refused the laboratory investigations for Covid. He took two doses of the Chinese vaccine (Sinopharm) six months before recent symptoms. After strict treatment, the cough became less frequent, white-colored sputum, fever dropped gradually, at the end of the week. On the tenth day from the beginning of the man's symptoms, the skin rash faded slowly due to prednisolone usage.