Scabies is a skin condition caused by a microscopic mite, a tiny creature with a round body and eight legs. The female mite burrows into human skin, laying eggs that trigger a local allergic reaction. This reaction leads to red, itchy, sometimes blistered, or crusted pathways just beneath the skin’s surface. Scabies is highly contagious, typically requiring prolonged contact, such as through sexual contact or living with an infected person, rather than brief physical touch.
How Scabies Spreads
Scabies, a highly contagious skin condition caused by the microscopic mite Sarcoptes scabiei, may seem insignificant due to its size. However, these tiny creatures can cause significant discomfort and skin problems. Understanding how scabies spread is crucial to preventing and managing outbreaks.
Modes of Transmission
- Prolonged Skin-to-Skin Contact:
- Direct Contact: The most common and surprisingly easy way scabies spreads is through direct, prolonged skin-to-skin contact with an infected person. This type of contact is often found in close-knit environments like households, dormitories, and care facilities. Simple acts such as holding hands, hugging, or any extended physical contact can facilitate the transfer of mites, underlining the need for vigilance and proper hygiene.
- Sexual Contact: Scabies is often transmitted during sexual intercourse due to the extended close physical contact involved.
- Indirect Contact:
- Shared Items: While less common, scabies can spread through contact with infested items such as bedding, towels, or clothing. The mites can survive for a short period (up to 72 hours) on these surfaces, making it possible for someone to contract scabies without direct skin contact.
Scabies Risk Factors
- Crowded Living Conditions: People living in overcrowded conditions, such as nursing homes, prisons, and refugee camps, are at higher risk of scabies outbreaks due to the increased likelihood of prolonged skin contact and shared items.
- Close Family Contact: Scabies can spread quickly within households when family members share living spaces and personal items.
- Immunocompromised Individuals: Those with weakened immune systems, including the elderly, HIV patients, and individuals undergoing certain medical treatments, are more susceptible to severe infestations and are more likely to spread the mites to others.
How to Prevent Scabies
- Avoid Direct Contact: Limit prolonged skin-to-skin contact with individuals known to have scabies until they have been treated.
- Do Not Share Personal Items: Avoid sharing bedding, towels, clothing, and other personal items with someone with scabies.
- Personal Hygiene: Maintaining good personal hygiene is a key step in preventing scabies. Promptly treating any suspected cases can also help prevent the spread of scabies to others.
- Environmental Cleaning: Wash clothing, bedding, and towels an infested person uses in hot water and dry them on a high heat setting. Items that cannot be washed should be sealed in plastic bags and kept away from contact for at least 72 hours.
Scabies Treatment and Remedies
- Cold Compresses or Cool Baths: They can soothe symptoms and temporarily relieve itching.
- Over-the-counter Antihistamines: These effectively reduce the allergic reaction caused by the mite infestation.
- Calamine Lotion: Provides over-the-counter relief for itching and redness.
- Permethrin Cream (5%): Prescribed for adults and children over two years of age and considered safe for pregnant women. Applied all over the skin, it kills adult mites and their eggs within 8 to 14 hours. A second application one week later is recommended. All household contacts should be treated simultaneously. The skin should heal entirely within four weeks.
- Stromectol (Ivermectin): Taken in pill form at 200 micrograms per kilogram of body weight. Two doses, 8 to 15 days apart, are necessary since ivermectin does not kill scabies eggs.
- Ivermectin Cream: Used to treat scabies with two applications, two weeks apart, ensuring complete healing within four weeks.
- Eurax or Crotan (Crotamiton) Cream or Lotion: Applied twice daily for two days. It is generally less effective than permethrin and not recommended for pregnant or nursing women, children, or adults over 65.
Did you know? QuickMD can diagnose and treat scabies infections from the comfort of your home and provide you with an online prescription for permethrin (or any other anti-scabies medication).
