Skip to main content

What is scabies?

Scabies is a skin disease

Scabies (also called Scabiës) is a contagious skin disease caused by the scabies mite. The scabies mite is a small, spider-like insect that lives in the stratum corneum (superficial layer of the skin). This scabies my digs corridors in the stratum corneum and lays eggs in it. The feces of the scabies mite cause a body's rebound reaction, resulting in severe itching and sometimes rashes. Scabies is good to treat and does not indicate a lack of hygiene: anyone can get it. It is important that treatment also treats people in the immediate vicinity of the patient (even when these people do not experience itching or skin abnormalities). Scabies is transmitted by direct skin contact with an infected person, or sleeping in a bed with contaminated bed linen. One night in a hotel that was rarely the bed linen can already have an infestation. The skin abnormalities can occur 2 to 6 weeks after the infection and are especially visible between the fingers, armpits, groin (sheltered patches of the skin). Scabies is the only contagious form of itching, and definitive diagnosis is difficult to demonstrate: it can only be with a microscope.

Scabies mite [YouTube] NwmPaTI5iEE [/youtube]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *