Q: I am a 31 years old male. I have small itchy bumps on my skin at the root of hair from childhood but few have formed scars. For the past 2 years this has increased drastically. These bumps started spreading on both my arms and shoulders for a year. After using different kinds of medications the bumps disappeared from the arms to my legs. Almost every hair follicle has this pus filled bump, which dry up and then have to picked or pops out like white dry hard tinny balls and a new one forms again. I used to have asthma as a child. I took inhalers like Beclamethasone till the age of 15 years. How do I get rid of them, I have been to many dermatologists who just say it is because of dry skin and to apply moisturisers, etc.

A:You could be having atopic dermatitis. This can start in infancy and can occur in an adult. In this condition the skin is usually dry and there can be follicular papules. However, pus formation is not a primary feature of this condition; it could be due to superimposed secondary infection. One tries to achieve maximum relief with as little medication as is possible. Further, one should try to find the precipitating and aggravating factors and then try to avoid them. One has to carry on with these measures till the active phase lasts. In short, one has to learn to live with it, with minimum medication possible. However, this disease is usually not very extensive in the adult phase. Another condition in which you can have itchy follicular papules over the body is infundibulo-folliculitis.