The
Parasites - Scabies
The microscopic scabies mite burrows into the upper layer of the skin where it lives and lays its eggs. The most common symptoms of scabies are intense itching and a pimple-like skin rash. The scabies mite usually is spread by direct, prolonged, skin-to-skin contact with a person who has scabies.
Scabies can also spread through contact with the clothes, bedding, or towels of someone who has scabies. Scabies spreads quickly in crowded areas where close body and skin contact is common. Nursing homes or extended-care facilities, childcare facilities, and prisons are common places where scabies outbreaks occur.
Scabies is highly contagious and is spread by close contact. If untreated, it can last indefinitely. Scabies is not caused by poor hygiene.
Check if it's scabies
The spots may look red. They are more difficult to see on dark skin, but you should be able to feel them. Tiny mites lay eggs in the skin, leaving lines with a dot at one end. The rash can appear anywhere, but it often starts between the fingers.
Unfortunately, in practice, scabies is largely diagnosed based only on the clinical picture, which may lead to a misdiagnosis. A broad differential diagnosis of scabies can include atopic dermatitis (AD), allergic contact dermatitis, nummular eczema, arthropod bites, dermatitis herpetiformis, etc. (1, 7).
Symptoms of scabies
The itching is often worse at night, when your skin is warmer. It may take 4 to 6 weeks before the itching starts because this is how long it takes for the body to react to mite droppings.
The only way to keep scabies away is to avoid prolonged, direct skin-to-skin contact with a person who has them. You also want to avoid touching items, like bedding or clothing, that the person has used. If you, or someone in your home, has scabies or has been exposed to it, seek treatment right away.
Scabies is a common, yet neglected, skin disease. Scabies occurs across Australia, but most frequently in socioeconomically disadvantaged populations in tropical regions, including in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
Permethrin kills the scabies mite and eggs. Permethrin is the drug of choice for the treatment of scabies. Two (or more) applications, each about a week apart, may be necessary to eliminate all mites. Children aged 2 months or older can be treated with permethrin.
The most common symptoms are: Blisters or bumps — Pink, raised bumps with a clear top filled with fluid are likely to appear on areas of the body where scabies have infested. Itching — A sensation of a foreign object crawling on the skin will create constant and sometimes severe itching, especially at night.
Scabies is spread by prolonged skin-to-skin contact with a person who has scabies. Scabies sometimes also can be spread by contact with items such as clothing, bedding, or towels that have been used by a person with scabies, but such spread is very uncommon unless the infested person has crusted scabies.
Key points about scabies
Scabies mites are very contagious. They often spread from person to person while they are sleeping in the same bed, or during other close contact. Scabies should be treated quickly to keep the mites from spreading.
The day you start treatment, wash your clothes, bedding, towels, and washcloths. Mites can survive for a few days without human skin. If a mite survives, you can get scabies again. To prevent this, you must wash clothes, sheets, comforters, blankets, towels, and other items.
The scabies mites are tiny and can be difficult to see. Scabies (meaning 'to scratch'), is a condition primarily characterised by intense itching which is usually worse at night or after a hot shower or bath.
Take a hot, soapy bath or shower to remove medicine. Put on clean clothes and change the bedding. Wash and dry underwear and bed linens with hot water and hot dryer settings. Treat all family members and sexual partners, whether they have obvious scabies or not.
What causes scabies? Scabies is caused by a tiny mite called 'Sarcoptes scabiei'. The mites burrow under the skin to lay eggs. The newly hatched mites are spread over the body by scratching.
The infestation may last for years without treatment and has been called the seven year itch. This is a photomicrograph of scabies feces in skin scrapings.
Can scabies mites hop, jump, or fly? No. These mites can only crawl. They crawl about one inch per minute on the skin surface.
When a person is infested with scabies mites the first time, symptoms usually do not appear for up to two months (2-6 weeks) after being infested; however, an infested person still can spread scabies during this time even though he/she does not have symptoms.