Discussing Treatments, Anticipatory Guidance for Molluscum Contagiosum, with Nanette Silverberg, MD

In another segment of her interview with the HCPLive team, Nanette Silverberg, MD, spoke about the takeaways from her conference talk ‘What's New in Molluscum Contagiosum? Advances in Understanding and Treating Molluscipoxvirus,’ presented at the 2025 American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) Annual Meeting.

Silverberg, who serves as the chief of pediatric dermatology for the Mount Sinai Health System in the Kimberly and Eric J. Waldman Department of Dermatology, was asked in this segment of her AAD interview about identifying molluscum in children.

“We always talk about syphilis being the great imitator in dermatology, but molluscum is a great imitator in kids,” Silverberg explained. “You know, we hope kids don't get syphilis. Obviously, there have been some recent cases of congenital syphilis because of the background rise in the population, but in general, molluscum is the great imitator in childhood. It can look like acne. It can look like eczema because it can be hidden by the eczema and can trigger severe eczema. It can get so large that it looks like a cyst or an abscess. So it really can be hard to diagnose at the beginning.”

Silverberg added that clinicians have to maintain a high level of suspicion, noting that they can do so by magnifying lesions.

“If you see severe eczema, and it's always in the same location on the leg, and parents have such a hard time clearing it, you need to magnify and look for molluscum,” she explained. “It's often there. We have lots of in-office tools to diagnose, such as dermoscopy and Tzanck preparation, so certainly these can help us make the diagnosis in the office.”

Silverberg also spoke to the potential options among patients with molluscum contagiosum and their caregivers as far as therapeutics.

“We have a rich therapeutic armamentarium that's coming out now with topical berdazimer, which was FDA-approved but not yet released,” Silverberg said. “The new in-office cantharidin that we can use [as well]. All of these add to our ability to holistically treat molluscum, and they came at just the right time because we have so many cases. It's gotten more extensive over time, and it's wonderful to be able to offer patients therapeutic options.”

To learn more about these takeaways from Silverberg’s presentation on molluscum, view her full interview posted above. For more coverage of interviews with presenters and trial investigators at AAD, view our full coverage of the conference here.

The quotes contained in the interview summary above were edited for clarity.