bizarre old man skin disease

One piece of my health problems I had beginning in August turned out to be a kind of eczema, eczema pityriasis rosea to be exact. I found this out during a trip to my American dermatologist on a short trip back to The States in late September-early October of last year.

Unfortunately, she got my biopsy back after I had returned to China, so I have had to rely on intermediaries or interwebs for more info like: How did I get this? (Interwebs don't know. It's not a thing anyone else in my family has.) Will it ever go away? (Probably, say interwebs, but I apparently belong to the two percent of people that suffer recurrences.) How do I prevent outbreaks? (I don't.) Interwebs also suggest that eczema and pityriasis rosea are two different things, instead of pityriasis rosea being a kind of eczema, like my derm seemed to say.

I still have it now and have been getting regular-sick, the cold or flu-ey kind, more often since I developed this, because it's a fun kind of dermatological thing that also can come with upper respiratory tract infections, fevers, headaches, nausea and fatigue, yay.

At this point, I'm sure you're thinking, "This might be a bit of an overshare, or at least significantly less interesting, compared to her usual posts..." BUT, there's a reason for it.

An older, American male friend of mine here has another form of eczema that has gotten significantly worse since he moved to China.

Another American male coworker, my age, was complaining last week about a weird skin patch on his leg that developed since he came to China and hasn't gone away in months. He showed me and the older gent and we both agreed that it's definitely eczema.

Same thing with another younger, American male friend here.

I think it's a little strange that so many people around me have developed, or aggrevated their existing, eczema here. The coworker that's had it for a while before China explains it to me as allergy related, and he alters his diet and what touches his skin in his affected areas (not an option for me anyway). Wikipedia doesn't seem to be saying mine is allergy related though, and as far as I know I'm not allergic to anything. 

Weird. Sucky and weird.