Scabies treatment, diagnosis & prescriptions

Yes, a Maple doctor can diagnose and prescribe treatment for scabies. The rash scabies leaves on the skin is the most common sign, so a physician may ask to examine the affected area, and collect other pertinent details about your health to make a diagnosis.

Scabies is a skin condition caused by Sarcoptes scabiei, which are microscopic mites that burrow under the skin, lay eggs, and continue to breed on the body. Having scabies can be an extremely uncomfortable experience because the mites cause an itchy rash. Although scabies is highly contagious, it isn’t dangerous.

If a person is infested for the first time, it can take 4-6 weeks for symptoms to appear. Scabies is still contagious during that phase. Someone who has had scabies before will show symptoms within a few days.

Scabies symptoms include:

• rash, usually red and pimple-like and extremely itchy, but sometimes scaly
• itching that gets worse at night
• greyish-white lines on the skin that are slightly raised, from where the mites are burrowing under the skin
• sores that form from excessive scratching

Scabies is caused by prolonged skin-to-skin contact with someone else that has scabies. Scabies isn’t usually passed on with brief contact like handshakes. Mites move from one person to the next during longer skin contact like holding a child, or being intimate with a partner. It is common for entire households to get scabies at once because of how contagious scabies is among people living in close quarters.

If someone has crusted scabies, it’s possible for another person to become infested by sleeping in their unwashed sheets, or borrowing their clothes. This is less common.

In the early stages, a scabies rash looks a lot like other skin conditions such as acne, or bites from other pests like mosquitoes. Later, the rash can cause scaling on the skin that looks similar to psoriasis. Because the scabies rash imitates so many other things, it’s easily misdiagnosed.

A doctor can diagnose scabies by looking at your skin. They’ll look for the burrows, or track marks, that distinguish scabies from other concerns. Sometimes a sample from the burrow may be sent for examination to confirm the presence of eggs, or mite feces.

Medicinal cream is a common treatment for scabies, like Elemite, Eurax, or for those with certain allergies or no success with other treatments, Lindance.

If one person in your household has scabies, it’s likely that the rest of the people in your house do as well. Cleaning sheets and clothing of an infected person, and vacuuming furniture the person has come in contact with will help prevent scabies from spreading.

While eczema and scabies may be similar in appearance, scabies is caused by a mite that burrows under the skin, lays eggs and reproduces, while eczema isn’t linked to any parasite. The cause of eczema is unknown, but is thought to be linked to immune function. While they both can cause itchy, flaky skin, they’re not related conditions.