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Introduction
Have you of recent had severe itching occuring all over your body? Have you been experiencing itching with darkish or reddish rashes all over your body? Have some or most members of your family been experiencing itchy rashes? Have you had itchy rashes that defied medication?
It could be scabies.
What is scabies?
Scabies is a parasitic disease caused by a burrowing mite known as Sarcoptes scabiei. It is spread by person to person contact and may affect many members of the family particularly children.
Anatomy
Scabies mites are microscopic ( not visible to the naked eye) Adult females measure 0.3 - 0.45 long and 0.25 - 0.35mm wide while the males measure 0.20 - 0.24 long and 0.15 - 0.20mm wide
Symptoms and signs of scabies
The symptoms and signs are that of intense itching and rashes which can occur anytime of the day or night. Rashes may be dark or reddish depending on the skin colour.
Diagnosis
There are two ways to make diagnosis:
- Clinical diagnosis: Intractable, intense itching with characteristic rashes.
- Laboratory diagnosis: This entails making skin scraps from the rashes and making wet preparation to demonstrate the female mite under the microscope.
Treatment
There are two steps to treatment:
- Treatment of clothes: All clothes and beddings should be soaked in hot water with sodium hypochlorite and then washed and sun dried. If not, all the clothes should be ironed.
- Eradication of the parasite from the body
The hairs should be shaved and parasitic cream applied head to toe and left for about eight hours and then washed. Sometimes,it may be necessary to repeat after two weeks.
Complications
There are no serious complications. But sometimes, rashes may be invaded by bacteria which may progress to Septicemia. But this is rare.