What is Scabies?
Scabies is a skin condition caused by the infestation of a tiny mite known as Sarcoptes scabiei. These minuscule mites burrow into the upper layer of the skin, causing an itchy rash and raised blisters. The itching, often severe, tends to worsen at night.
Scabies is highly contagious and spreads rapidly through direct, prolonged skin-to-skin contact, making it a common issue in crowded environments like nursing homes or schools.
What Causes Scabies?
Scabies is caused by the female Sarcoptes scabiei mite creating tunnels under the skin to lay eggs, which eventually hatch, with the larvae moving to the skin’s surface to mature. This cycle causes intense itching due to the body’s allergic reaction to the mites, their eggs, and their waste.
How Scabies Spreads
Scabies typically spreads from close skin-to-skin contact with someone who already has the condition. It often occurs in crowded living conditions or care facilities. While it’s less common, sharing clothing, bedding, or towels with an infected person can also lead to an infestation.
Scabies is not a condition limited by hygiene or social status; it can affect anyone and is typically spread through close physical contact or, less commonly, by sharing clothing or bedding with an infected person. Its rapid spread is particularly notable in environments where close body contact is frequent, such as family settings, schools, or healthcare facilities.
Despite being highly transmissible, scabies can be effectively treated with prescription creams.
Recognising Scabies Symptoms
Scabies typically presents with intense itching, often worse at night, and a distinctive rash that includes thin, wavy tunnels of tiny blisters or bumps on the skin. The rash commonly appears in skin folds and can be found in various body parts, including between fingers and toes, around the waist, and on the soles of the feet.
The rash may also affect the palms, soles, face, scalp, and neck in infants and young children.
Scabies symptoms can start as early as a few days after exposure for those who have had scabies before, but it may take up to six weeks for symptoms to appear in those who have never had it.
How to Treat Scabies
Effective scabies treatment involves eliminating the mites and their eggs. Scabies treatment is only available with a doctor’s prescription and typically comes in the form of medicated creams.
Permethrin Cream is a popular treatment option applied to the entire body from the neck down and can be left on for 8 to 14 hours.
Due to scabies’ contagious nature, treating all household members and close contacts simultaneously, even if asymptomatic, is often recommended.
After scabies treatment, itching may continue for several weeks after the mites and eggs are killed. If symptoms persist beyond 2 to 4 weeks or if new lesions appear, retreatment might be necessary.
Over-the-counter Treatment for Scabies
Over-the-counter scabies treatment is usually not as effective in treating scabies as prescription medications. They can provide temporary relief from itching but do not eliminate the scabies mites or their eggs.
Post-Treatment Itching
Even after effective treatment, itching from a scabies infestation may continue for several weeks. You can help to relieve itching with any of the following:
- Take antihistamines and apply soothing skin creams like calamine cream to ease itching.
- Avoid scratching, which can lead to skin infections. Keeping nails short and wearing gloves at night can help prevent scratching.
- Proper skin hygiene and mild skin care products, like those suitable for dermatitis treatment, can help soothe irritated skin.
How to Prevent Scabies from Spreading
If you or a close contact have scabies, it’s important to try and prevent it from spreading and re-infesting people who have completed their treatment.
- Avoid Direct Contact: As scabies spreads through direct skin-to-skin contact, avoid close contact with someone you know has the condition.
- Treatment of Contacts: Treat all household members and close contacts, especially those who have had prolonged skin-to-skin contact with someone with scabies.
- Decontamination of Belongings: Bedding, clothing, and towels used by the infested person should be washed in hot water and dried in a tumble dryer on a hot setting, dry-cleaned, or sealed in a plastic bag for at least 72 hours to kill the mites.
