Good hygiene, early medication help fight scabies

Karachi (PPI) - Skin diseases, especially complaints of ‘itching’, are on the rise in Karachi. The major cause of skin itching is a bug called ‘sarcoptes scabiei’. This mite lives in our skin and causes an intensely itchy rash called scabies.

Dermatologists estimate that more than 300 million cases of scabies occur worldwide every year. The condition can strike anyone of any race or age, regardless of personal hygiene. The good news is that with better detection methods and treatments, scabies does not need to cause more than temporary distress.

The mite causing the scabies is only 1/60 inch long, and almost impossible to see without magnification. Being a tiny, eight-legged creature with a round body, the mite burrows in the skin, usually on the hands, wrists, ankles, groin, and armpits. Within several weeks, the patient develops an allergic reaction causing severe itching; often intense enough to keep sufferers awake all night.

One may have only six or seven scabies mites but be covered with hundreds of itchy spots. The itching areas are an allergic reaction, and no mite can be found in them.

Scabies often resemble other rashes. The only way to find out whether one has scabies is to scrape off a piece of skin and examine it under a microscope. Sometimes doctors treat scabies because they suspect it, even though they cannot find the mite.