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Acne Help (Home) > Rare Skin Disorders > Scabies Scabies: Causes, Symptoms, Treatment and PreventionScabies are common type of skin infections. Scabies causes small itchy bumps and blisters due to tiny mites that burrow into the top layer of human skin to lay their eggs. The burrow appears as short, wavy, reddish, or darkened lines on the skin's surface, especially around the wrists and between the fingers. A child who has contracted scabies sometimes develops a bumpy red rash. Scabies is infectious, and is by and large transmitted by skin-to-skin contact or through sexual contact with someone else who is infected with it. The scabies infection spreads more easily in crowded circumstances and especially in situations where there is a lot of close contact - like child-care centers or nursing homes. So if someone in your child's class or child-care group has infected with scabies, it's a good idea to have your child treated for the infection even before he or she develops the symptoms. Signs and Symptoms of ScabiesThe commonly occurring symptom of scabies is severe itching. Itching may sometimes worse during the night or after taking a hot bath. A scabies infection begins as small, itchy bumps, blisters, or pus-filled bumps that rupture when you scratch them or rub them. Itchy skin may become thick, scaly, scabbed, and crisscrossed with scratch marks. Scabies most commonly affects the hands and feet (especially the webs of skin between the fingers and toes), the inner part of the wrists, and the folds under the arms. This may also affect other areas of the body, particularly elbows and the areas around the breasts, genitals, navel, and buttocks. If a person infected with scabies scratches the itchy areas of skin, it increases the chance of being infected by bacteria. Impetigo is a bacterial skin infection that may occur in skin infected with scabies. Treatment for ScabiesScabies infections require proper care and treatment by a doctor. Call your child's doctor or dermatologist any time your child has a skin itch or rash that will not go away, especially if the itch is worse at night and seems to center around the wrists or the webbed part of the fingers. If scabies is suspected, the doctor may scrape a small part of the affected skin and examine the scrapings under a microscope for signs of scabies mites. Doctors prescribe a medicated cream or lotion to treat. The medicated cream kills the mites. The cream will need to be applied to the skin all over the body, not just the area with the rash, and usually must remain on the skin for 8 to 12 hours before it can be washed off. After applying it, don't wash your hands - scabies mites love the area between the fingers! You may want to apply the medication before your child goes to bed, and then wash it off in the morning. Most often, the treatment needs to be repeated in 1 week. Because scabies can be sexually transmitted, sexually active teens with scabies should be examined for other sexually transmitted diseases like STDs. Any sexual partners will also need to be treated for scabies. In case your child contracts bacterial infections, the doctor may prescribe antibiotics such as impetigo in addition to creams or lotions. The doctor may also prescribe an antihistamine to help relieve the itching and a cream like hydro-cortisone to help the rash go away faster. Once a child starts receiving treatment for scabies, it usually takes about 1 to 2 days for the itching to go away; however, sometimes the itching can last for a couple of days. If the treatment is effective there should be no new rashes or burrows after 24 to 48 hours. Prevention from scabiesDirect physical contact - like holding hands - is the most common way to transmit scabies, but because the mites that cause scabies can live as long as 2 to 3 days in clothing, bedding, or dust, it's possible for your child to catch scabies from another person who shares the same infected bed, linens, or towels. If someone in your family is receiving treatment for scabies, all other members of the family should be treated, too. Clothing, sheets, and towels should be washed in hot water. Each room in the house should be vacuumed, and the vacuum cleaner bag should then be thrown away.
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