What is Scabies?
Scabies; There is Sarcoptes scabiei. It is a disease common all over the world caused by the mite (insect) called hominis. The mange beetles, which cannot be seen with the eye but can be detected with a microscope, cause disease by invading human skin. The mange beetle lives in these tunnels by creating tunnels in the skin.
How Is The Disease Transmitted To People?
Scabies is usually transmitted by direct and prolonged close contact with someone who is sick. It can be transmitted from person to person by close contact (such as lying in the same bed, holding hands) even in a period of 15-20 minutes. Common use of personal items such as bedding, clothing and towels facilitates the transmission and spread of scabies.
In How Many Days Do The Symptoms Of The Disease Occur?
It may take up to 2-6 weeks for symptoms to begin in a person who has scabies for the first time. However, in a person who has had scabies before, symptoms usually occur within 1-4 days of exposure. Even in these periods when the symptoms of the disease do not begin, the person can infect other people with scabies.
What are the Symptoms of the Disease?
The most important symptom of scabies is severe nocturnal itching. Itching increases with the person getting into bed and warming up, and while it is severe enough to wake the person from sleep, it is lighter during the day. Although itching is usually seen in the fingers, the inner face of the wrist, wrists, armpits, elbows and groin, it can be seen on the whole body. The most prominent symptom of the disease is the gray-white colored tunnels 1-10 mm long, in which the mange beetle lives, seen as a wavy dirty line between the fingers.
Severe itching, especially at night, and the appearance of water-filled sacs on the skin increase the suspicion of scabies. When such a situation is encountered, the Health Institution should be consulted as soon as possible.
Is There a Treatment for the Disease?
Scabies is a treatable disease. Along with the patient, those who have direct and long-term close contact with the household and the person should also be treated. It should be remembered that the symptoms of scabies will not start immediately.
For this reason, in order for scabies treatment to be successful, people with scabies, especially those with whom they live together and who have long-term close contact, should be treated regardless of the presence of symptoms or not. Patients and people sharing the same living environment should be treated simultaneously, that is, at the same time. The drugs used in the treatment should be used as recommended by the physician, in the dose and time.
Itching may continue for 2-4 weeks due to allergy to dead insects and insect residues after treatment, this should not be confused with the disease.
What should be done to prevent the disease?
For the prevention and control of the disease, it is extremely important to treat people living with the person with scabies at the same time. Regardless of whether the family members have itch or not, they should definitely be treated together. If treatment is not applied at the same time, the disease will continue to be transmitted from person to person.
Clothes, sheets and towels used by people with scabies and those with whom they live at home should be washed and ironed at at least 60 degrees.
Bedding should be ventilated for a few days. Items that cannot be washed should be stored in a tied bag for an average of three days. In addition, floors and furniture should be vacuumed.
