Scabies
A contagious skin rash caused by microscopic mites, resulting in severe itching that can disrupt day-to-day livelihoods.
Scabies is an infectious dermatological disease caused by an infestation of a microscopic mite Sarcoptes scabiei. The mite burrows itself under the skin of its host and lays eggs. Scabies’s most prominent symptoms include severe itches and rashes and visible linear burrows and vesicles on the skin. Some may experience crusted scabies, which is characterized by thick, exfoliating crusts caused by more severe immune responses of the skin against the foreign mite.
Scabies is transmitted through close, prolonged, skin-to-skin contact with scabies patients or contaminated items. The main risk factors of scabies are overcrowding, which often causes close contact with bare, uncovered skin; and transmission by sexual activity with scabies carriers.
Scabies is commonly complicated with secondary bacterial infections by Staphylococcus or Streptococcus as a result of continuous scratching. Secondary infections can lead to local skin infections, blood infections, kidney diseases and heart diseases.
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