 [ Symptoms ] what can cause a skin rash [ Disease ] there are many many causes for a rash but when one shows up in school teachers assume the worst they are worried about measles chicken pox lyme disease scarlet fever fifth disease impetigo herpes simplexzoster handfootmouth disease mrsa or roseola just to name a few it is this fear of imminent contagiousness that leads to the child is exclusion from school sometimes the skin eruption is due to allergies such as hives or just a worsening dry skin condition like eczema atopic dermatitis even a cold virus whether it is in a cold that is at the contagious stage or not can cause a rash fortunately for all of us most rashes that children get are not serious or contagious i have seen children excluded for insect bites hives sunburns poison oakivy eczema and even zits teachers are not dermatologists so they are not going to make the diagnosis the school is just going to exclude the child and require a clearance note before the child can return i had a child excluded this week with poison oak poison oak is not contagious but at least half of the people i encounter think that it is the oleoresin of the rhus plant is definitely contagious but once this oil has been washed off of the contaminated skin clothing and other objects it can no longer cause trouble when people see this ugly rash oozing they assume the drainage is the “poison ” this is not true once the person takes a good shower and changes their clothes they do not need to be treated like they have leprosy high school wrestlers tend to get a variety of skin infections from those contaminated mats i see common warts molluscum another wart like skin lesion impetigo a staph or strep skin infection and more recently mrsa a potentially serious drug resistant staph infection of course the wrestlers are also excluded from participation because of eczema mosquito bites and other non contagious skin issues referees and coaches are getting better in recognizing skin problems i must say “it is not measles ” i must say this statement a dozen times a week contradicting home diagnoses made by day care providers and grandmothers measles is relatively rare in the united states now personally i have not seen a case in over 20 years thanks to the effectiveness of vaccinations a few hundred to a few thousand cases still occur in the u s depending on the year in unvaccinated individuals mosquito and flea bites can mimic early chicken pox lesions but only for a short while chicken pox varicella looks like a “dew drop sitting on a rose petal ” it is a tiny blister on a red base which turns into a scab followed by a tiny crater pox in a day or so although varicella immunized children can get a mild case it really does look different than mosquito bites chicken pox is caused by the herpes virus so re exposure to