Scabies

[sandra1020]

My boyfriends nephew was diagnosed with having scabies this past October. We were told that all he had was a rash....I was a bit weary because I saw that his personal hygiene is really poor. Pretty soon everyone (6 month old baby, 2 yr old son, 5 yr old and 10 yr old and boyfriend and now me) started having the mysterious "rash". So I googled it and saw that it was Scabies. We confronted his mom (they live in our basement) and she finally admitted that it was scabies and that it was highly contagious (DUH!) The following day after she admitted to us ( about 4 days ago) I took my children to the doctor. We were prescribed permethrin 5% and was told to disinfect the entire house with lysol. I did that. I applied the medication on all the kids and ourselves as well, washed everything in my house that was washable and disinfected the whole house. This was the day before yesterday and I am now more itchy than ever and have noticied more bumps and rashes appear. Is  this normal? I am a very clean person and this whole situation is freaking me out. My 6 month old has horrible rashes all over her body as well as my 10 yr old and boyfriend. I did not have them as bad as they did but now have more rashes all over my body. I did exactly what I was told to do. Put the medication on, disinfect, wash and then after 12 hours wash the lotion off. Is it normal? I still feel itchy and that crawling feeling all over my body. PLEASE HELP. I am thinking of kicking his relatives out of my house if this treatment did not work. By the way she did not use the treatment but has stayed in the basement and no longer socializes with us as she feels that I was mean.

[missesmommy]

Oh my goodness! Im going through the same thing right now. It is horrible!  I just applied the first treatment to my son and I on monday and cant wait to apply the 2nd round of permethrin to assure that these annoying pests die! I was wondering how in the world we caught these bugs. My skin to skin contact is only limited to my son so I am thinking since he had the rash appear about 2-3 weeks before I started to breakout he caught it from someone maybe at daycare. But there were no signs of anyone with this condition there either. The only thing I can possibly think of that is the cause of this is that I live in a building with two families as tenents and we share the basement laudry room. About a month ago I forgot that I had an extra load of laundry to throw in the wash and it sat in the basement for over a week. I suspect that maybe the mites were living in the basement dust and had gotten all over my clothes. Do you think this is this possible? Do these mites live in dust before they can live on humans?

[Bhupinder Kaur, MD]

Hello,
Welcome to the forum and I am really glad to help you out. According to American osteopathic college of dermatology, it is usual for itching and rash to continue for as long as two to four weeks after treatment of scabies is completed.  Hence a second application a week later is often advised. In some cases, repeat applications weekly are needed until cured.

Also wash all clothing, hats, bed clothes, bed linens, and towels in hot water and dry in high heat to prevent reinfection.
I sincerely hope it helps. Take care and please do keep me posted on how you are doing. Warm regards.