Scabies Prevention
What is Scabies? Scabies is a skin disease caused by an infestation of an itch mite, Sarcoptes Scabiei, under the skin. This tiny eight legged creature, invisible to the naked eye, burrows under the skin, laying eggs and leaving behind waste products in these burrows. They produce intense, painful itching and tiny blisters or lines in a curved track can be visible. The pain and itching is often worst at night, and often keep infected people up through the night. While scabies is easily curable, the bad news is that because of the nature of the infection, prevention is a lot harder, and small ‘mini-epidemics’ are often seen.
Is it Contagious? Scabies is contagious, and can be easily spread by close physical contact with infected cases. In some cases, it may not even require direct contact. If a person is infected with the mites, people who are in close proximity to him or her are highly susceptible to infection. This may include sexual partners, family, schools and day care centres and medical health professionals in hospitals. It is important to understand how the disease spreads to be able to effectively prevent its spread.
Prevention: The prevention of scabies can be very difficult as a person may not know when he or she has been exposed to the mites. In many cases, an infected person too may not know that he or she has been infected, as the mites may still be dormant. Scabies can be a difficult disease to diagnose, and doctors may misdiagnose it. There are no known vaccines to prevent infection by the mites. Because of this, prevention focuses on stopping re-infection, and preventing the disease from spreading.
Once the infection has been identified in an individual, it is important to trace all contacts. All these contacts should be treated for the disease, preferably with a ‘mite killing cream’, usually permethrin or an oral treatment. Treatment involves applying the cream all over the body, neck down, at night, and washing off the cream in the morning. Follow your GP’s instructions and prescriptions.
In the case of families, treatment should be co-ordinated. The whole family should apply the cream on the same day. Even those who are not itchy should apply the cream. This should be repeated a week later in the same co-ordinated way. At the same time, all the furniture in the house may need to be de-contaminated with an acaricidal spray or by fumigation. It’s also a good idea to wash all worn clothes in very hot water, and then steam iron them or dry them in a hot dryer. You may consider leaving some clothes like nightwear and bed linen sealed in a plastic bag, and stowed away for a few weeks, as this will definitely kill the mites. Contacts must be followed up again at regular intervals. It is important to apprise them of the seriousness of the disease and to make sure that they get treated as well.
