Scabies, Diagnosis, Treatment, Eradication of Scabies Mites in Your Home
Scabies is caused by a tiny mite that infests its host. It is very often mis-diagnosed and causes severely itchy rashes in infect individuals. Dermatologists estimate that more than 300 million cases of scabies occur worldwide every year.
The condition can strike anyone of any background and is not always a sign of poor hygiene. On the whole, scabies is easily controlled and eliminated.
How You Get Scabies
The very tiny mite that causes scabies can barely be seen by the human eye. Being a tiny, eight-legged creature with a round body, the mite burrows into your skin. In a few weeks, the patient develops an allergic reaction causing severe itching; often intense enough to keep sufferers awake all night.
Human scabies is almost always caught from another person by close contact. It could be a child, a friend, or another family member. Scabies is not a condition only of low-income families and neglected children, although, it is more often seen in crowded living conditions with poor hygiene.
They are attracted to the warmth of your body and the natural pheromones we humans give off. The female mite burrows into the skin, lays eggs, and produces toxins that cause allergic reactions. Larvae, or newly hatched mites, travel to the skin surface, lying in shallow pockets where they will develop into adult mites. If the mite is scratched off the skin, it can live in bedding for up to 24 hours or more. It may take up to a month before a person will notice the itching, especially in people with good hygiene and who bathe regularly.
What to Look For
The earliest and most common symptom of scabies is itching, especially at night. Little red bumps like hives, tiny bites, or pimples appear. In more advanced cases, the skin may be crusty or scaly. Many times, people who get scabies think they may have a bed bug problem.
Skin mite
Scabies prefers warmer sites on the skin such as skin folds, where clothing is tight, between the fingers or under the nails, on the elbows or wrists, the buttocks or belt line, around the nipples, and on the penis. They will also hide beneath and inside jewelry warn on the body.
In children, the infestation may involve the entire body including the palms, soles, and scalp. The worst parts of the infestation in children are the lack of sleep and itching.
Another concern is the onslaught of bacterial infection from the constant scratching. In many cases, children are treated because of infected skin lesions rather than for the scabies itself. Although treatment of bacterial infections may provide relief, recurrence is almost certain if the scabies infection itself is not treated.
Crusted Scabies
Crusted scabies is a form of the disease in which the symptoms are far more severe. Large areas of the body, like the hands and feet, may be scaly and crusted. The skin becomes leathery and thick in defense of the infestation.
These crusted skin areas harbor thousands of living mites and their eggs, making treatment difficult because medications applied directly to the skin may not be able to penetrate the thickened skin. This type of scabies occurs mostly among the elderly, in some AIDS patients, or in people whose immunity is decreased. This form also breeds heavy infection often.
Diagnosis of Scabies Mites
The dermatologist needs to do a thorough inspection, specially exploring skin folds.
Many cases of scabies can be diagnosed by your dermatologist without special tests. To confirm scabies your dermatologist can perform a painless test that involves applying a drop of oil to the suspected lesion. The oil makes the mites rise to the surface where they are then and transferred to a glass slide and examined under a microscope. A diagnosis is made by finding scabies mites or their eggs.
How to Get Rid of Scabies
- * 5% permethrin cream is applied to the skin from the neck down at bedtime and washed off the next morning. Dermatologists recommend that the cream be applied to cool, dry skin over the entire body (including the palms of the hands, under finger nails, soles of the feet, and the groin) and left on for 8 to 14 hours. A second treatment one week later may be recommended. This cream can cause burning.
- * 1% lindane lotion is applied from the neck down at night and washed off in the morning. It may be reapplied one week later. Lindane should not be used on infants, small children, pregnant or nursing women, or people with seizures or other neurological diseases, and has been banned in the state of California.
- * 10% percent sulfur ointment and crotamiton cream may be used for infants.
- * Ivermectin is an oral medicine which may be prescribed for the difficult to treat crusted form of scabies. It is not to be used in infants or pregnant women.
- * Antihistamines may be prescribed to relieve itching, which can last for weeks, even after the mite is gone.
- * Getting rid of the mites is critical in the treatment of scabies. Everyone in the family or group, whether itching or not, should be treated at the same time to stop the spread of scabies. This includes close friends, day care or school classmates, or nursing homes.
- * Dryclean all bedding and sheets
What To Do if Scabies is In Your Household
* Wash clothes. Do all the laundry with the hottest water possible. Wash them twice and don’t mix clean clothing in the same closet as soiled clothing.
* Items may be dry-cleaned.
* Wash all sheets and blankets in all bedrooms.
* Have all carpets professionally steam cleaned
* Pets do not need to be treated.
* Items may also be placed in a sealed plastic bag and placed in the garage for two weeks. If the mites do not get a meal within one week, they will die.
Another way to be sure you completely eradicate the mite problem in your house is to call a professional exterminating company like Terminix. They will be able to eliminate scabies from your home as well as all other insects infesting you and your family.
