To get rid of it, and to keep from spreading it to others, you need to use a special cream or lotion that a doctor prescribes. These products contain permethrin or another medicine. In severe cases, your doctor may also give you pills to take. Most creams or lotions are applied to the entire body from the neck down.
In most cases, you leave the medicine on for 8 to 14 hours and then wash it off. Be sure to read and follow all instructions that come with your medicine. Some scabies medicines aren't safe for children, older adults, and women who are pregnant or breastfeeding.
To avoid dangerous side effects, be sure to follow your doctor's instructions carefully. If you have scabies, you and anyone you have close contact with must all be treated at the same time. This keeps the mites from being passed back and forth from person to person. Until scabies has cleared up, you should avoid close contact with anyone and make sure not to share any personal items. After treatment, the itching usually lasts another 2 to 4 weeks.
It will take your body that long to get over the allergic reaction caused by the mites. Antihistamines include a nondrowsy one like loratadine Claritin or one that might make you sleepy like diphenhydramine Benadryl. Other medicine, like steroid creams, or, in severe cases, steroid pills can help relieve itching.
Before you use these medicines, talk with your doctor about what is best for you or your child. Author: Healthwise Staff. This information does not replace the advice of a doctor. Healthwise, Incorporated, disclaims any warranty or liability for your use of this information. Your use of this information means that you agree to the Terms of Use. Learn how we develop our content. To learn more about Healthwise, visit Healthwise. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated.
Updated visitor guidelines. You are here Home » Scabies. Persons with crusted scabies have thick crusts of skin that contain large numbers of scabies mites and eggs.
Persons with crusted scabies are very contagious to other persons and can spread the infestation easily both by direct skin-to-skin contact and by contamination of items such as their clothing, bedding, and furniture. Persons with crusted scabies may not show the usual signs and symptoms of scabies such as the characteristic rash or itching pruritus.
Persons with crusted scabies should receive quick and aggressive medical treatment for their infestation to prevent outbreaks of scabies. If a person has never had scabies before, symptoms may take weeks to develop. In a person who has had scabies before, symptoms usually appear much sooner days after exposure.
The most common signs and symptoms of scabies are intense itching pruritus , especially at night, and a pimple-like papular itchy rash.
The itching and rash each may affect much of the body or be limited to common sites such as the wrist, elbow, armpit, webbing between the fingers, nipple, penis, waist, belt-line, and buttocks. The rash also can include tiny blisters vesicles and scales. Scratching the rash can cause skin sores; sometimes these sores become infected by bacteria. Tiny burrows sometimes are seen on the skin; these are caused by the female scabies mite tunneling just beneath the surface of the skin.
These burrows appear as tiny raised and crooked serpiginous grayish-white or skin-colored lines on the skin surface. Because mites are often few in number only mites per person , these burrows may be difficult to find. They are found most often in the webbing between the fingers, in the skin folds on the wrist, elbow, or knee, and on the penis, breast, or shoulder blades.
The head, face, neck, palms, and soles often are involved in infants and very young children, but usually not adults and older children. Scabies usually is spread by direct, prolonged, skin-to-skin contact with a person who has scabies. Contact generally must be prolonged; a quick handshake or hug usually will not spread scabies. Scabies is spread easily to sexual partners and household members.
Scabies in adults frequently is sexually acquired. Scabies sometimes is spread indirectly by sharing articles such as clothing, towels, or bedding used by an infested person; however, such indirect spread can occur much more easily when the infested person has crusted scabies.
Diagnosis of a scabies infestation usually is made based on the customary appearance and distribution of the rash and the presence of burrows. Whenever possible, the diagnosis of scabies should be confirmed by identifying the mite, mite eggs, or mite fecal matter scybala. This can be done by carefully removing a mite from the end of its burrow using the tip of a needle or by obtaining skin scraping to examine under a microscope for mites, eggs, or mite fecal matter.
It is important to remember that a person can still be infested even if mites, eggs, or fecal matter cannot be found; typically fewer than mites can be present on the entire body of an infested person who is otherwise healthy.
However, persons with crusted scabies can be infested with thousands of mites and should be considered highly contagious. On a person, scabies mites can live for as long as months. Off a person, scabies mites usually do not survive more than hours. Products used to treat scabies are called scabicides because they kill scabies mites; some also kill eggs. Always follow carefully the instructions provided by the doctor and pharmacist, as well as those contained in the box or printed on the label.
When treating adults and older children, scabicide cream or lotion is applied to all areas of the body from the neck down to the feet and toes; when treating infants and young children, the cream or lotion also is applied to the head and neck. The medication should be left on the body for the recommended time before it is washed off.
Clean clothes should be worn after treatment. In addition to the infested person, treatment also is recommended for household members and sexual contacts, particularly those who have had prolonged skin-to-skin contact with the infested person.
All persons should be treated at the same time in order to prevent reinfestation. Retreatment may be necessary if itching continues more than weeks after treatment or if new burrows or rash continue to appear. Anyone who is diagnosed with scabies, as well as his or her sexual partners and other contacts who have had prolonged skin-to-skin contact with the infested person, should be treated. Treatment is recommended for members of the same household as the person with scabies, particularly those persons who have had prolonged skin-to-skin contact with the infested person.
All persons should be treated at the same time to prevent reinfestation. After contact, a person will come down with scabies rash in 4 to 6 weeks. Itching is the first symptom. The rash and itching are the body's allergic reaction to mites in the skin. Can occur in anyone and does not mean poor hygiene. Scabies mites do not carry any disease. Prevention of Spread to Others Scabies is very contagious and prevention is difficult.
It's best to treat everyone who has had close contact. Bellevue Everett Federal Way Seattle. Should your child see a doctor? All Symptoms. Accept All Cookies.
0コメント