How to Know if That Rash Is Scabies
Good hygiene alone won’t stop the mites that cause the itching of scabies, but it’s a treatable condition.
Sometimes an itch is just a temporary annoyance, but if that itch persists, begins to show as a rash that starts to spread, or gets worse at night, you may have scabies.
This skin condition causes itching and, typically, raised red spots, and it starts when human itch mites (called Sarcoptes scabiei) burrow under your skin and lay eggs there. In most healthy adults, just 10 to 15 mites can cause scabies.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), immunocompromised or elderly patients are at greater risk for contracting crusted, or Norwegian, scabies — a form of scabies involving an extreme infestation of thousands of mites — and as a result can become highly contagious.
Scabies can spread quickly in nursing homes, dormitories, camps, and other places where people are crowded together and come in contact with each other, according to the American Academy of Dermatology (ADA). Of course, it can also spread among families and cohabitants once one person brings it into the house. Scabies spreads from person to person, but you don’t get it from pets, notes the CDC. Your doctor can help you distinguish scabies from other causes of a rash.
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