Scabies is not caused by poor hygiene as was once commonly thought by some people. The fact is that anybody can get scabies by coming into bodily contact with someone who is already infected. What are the symptoms of scabies? Scabies results in severe itching particularly in the evenings as people lie in bed under blankets for warmth. Fingers, wrists, elbows, armpits, thighs, buttocks and groins are some of the areas that scabies tend to afflict quite often. Other parts of the body are susceptible too, but these are the main ones. Mites burrow into the skin most especially the areas around the feet, hands and male genitalia. Adults don’t usually suffer from scabies above the neck, although infants and young children are known to be vulnerable to scabies in the neck and head.

An allergic reaction to the mites is what causes the intense itching, and it results in rashes and raised spots that are red in color. How do you treat scabies? Skin lotions such as permethrin, crotamiton and lindane are some of the pharmaceutical products used to treat scabies. It is advisable to see a doctor in the first instance. The lotion will have to be applied all over the body from the neck downwards. The itching doesn’t usually stop immediately, so even though the scabies has been eliminated, itching may continue for a while. People that come into close contact with an infected person need to be treated as well, This includes family members, roommates and sexual partners. The best way to prevent re-infection is to wash all clothes, underwear and bed linen with hot water and then dry them at a high temperature.

Then use a vacuum cleaner on the carpets and upholstery. Combs and brushes should also bee thoroughly washed with soap and hot water as well. How do you prevent scabies? If someone around you has scabies, makes sure that you avoid coming into bodily contact with him or her. Also regularly change your clothes and wash them thoroughly. The same thing applies to bed linen and other laundry items. Clothes and other personal items should not be shared in situations where there is a suspected case of scabies. We now know how to cure scabies.

Watching a young child suffer is really hard to bear. The one thing that should always be done with scabies is to tackle the problem immediately.

The mites that cause scabies multiply so quickly, and before you know it your entire body could be infected. Understanding the scabies lifecycle is very important. Eggs laid by a female hatch into larvae after three or four days. The larvae then make their own burrows as they move around in the body. their burrows are typically closer to the surface of the skin. Four days later, the larvae are fully mature adult mites. The new mites either move to other parts of the body or get transmitted to another person through body contact.

Adult females can survive for as long as four weeks in the body of the host. The normal treatment for scabies is the prescription of a lotion that is applied to the skin and left there for as long as eight hours. By this point most people are ready to do just about anything to free themselves from the discomfort and itching caused by the mites.

However, it is important to check out the ingredients in the prescribed lotion. Some of the ingredients have been linked to cancer and leukaemia. A Scabies home remedy won’t pose that risk, and that is why many people prefer a natural remedy.

It is also common in hostels, hospitals as well as nursing homes. Just brief skin contact with an infected person is enough to transfer scabies from one person to another. Some people think that you must have prolonged skin contact to get infected. That is not necessarily the case at all. Sharing the same bed with someone is an easy way to get infected by the scabies bug. The same applies to sexual contact of any kind. Sharing clothes, bed linen or towels is another way that scabies can be transmitted. Animals also suffer from scabies. However, the species of mite that infects animals cannot survive for long on the human body, meaning that humans are safe from animal scabies.

That particular species can only survive for a maximum of a few days on the human body. As stated earlier, skin contact with an infected person is often enough to transmit the disease. Scabies makes no distinction based on age, sex, colour, race or social standing. Anyone can suffer from scabies.

It is more prevalent, however, amongst those that live in crowded conditions, or those that have permanent contact with children or infants. After infection, it generally takes up to four weeks for the symptoms to manifest. Sometimes it could take slightly longer or slightly less – it caries from case to case. For those that have suffered a previous case of scabies, the symptoms can appear in as quickly as two days. This means that people can suffer from scabies more than once.

The most common types of symptoms associated with scabies are itching mainly in the evenings, as well as blisters and rashes. With the right medical attention, scabies can be treated very effectively. However, failure to treat it promptly could mean that the disease carries on for several weeks or even months. The main treatment for scabies involves the application of a cream or lotion to the areas affected by scabies. Experts advise that application should start from the neck and then proceed downwards. Special attention should always be paid to how to kill scabies on the elbows, knees, wrists and armpits. They are the parts of the body that are mostly afflicted by scabies.

In the not too distant past, Scabies was known to afflict a large number of people. Fortunately, things have changed for the better with people being more aware of hygienic conditions around them. This has resulted in a welcome decline in the number of scabies cases. Scabies hasn’t been completely wiped out yet, but a lot of progress has being made in that respect.

Scabies is actually caused by Sarcoptes scabiei, which is a tiny mite with eight legs. You will not be able to detect the mite without the aid of a microscope.

The mites are generally attracted by the heat and smell generated by the human body. As soon as they gets into the skin they burrow all the way to the bottom of the skin’s surface. The next thing they do is to create tunnels, which serve as their habitat. The female mites will then lay eggs inside the skin and before long a whole colony of mites spreads all across the skin. Careful observation of the skin can actually reveal the tiny tunnels created by the mites. It takes a few weeks for the incubation period, and it is only after this that the symptoms of scabies appear on the body.

Unfortunately, anybody with scabies is contagious immediately after infection and well before manifestation of the symptoms.

Generally, the scabies mites have a penchant for the hands and feet, and in most cases these are the two parts of the body where the symptoms will first manifest. So how does scabies spread from person to person? Something as simple as touching someone who is infected by scabies can result in infection, so it is very important to be vigilant and careful.

Fortunately, jumping is beyond the ability of mites, so staying in close proximity to an infected person will not result in infection, as long as there is no bodily contact. Sharing clothes, though, can and will result in infection. The mites in clothes will survive for up to five days before they perish from lack of food.

Scabies is transferred from one part of the body to another when you touch an infected part first and then touch an uninfected part immediately after.

Pets such as cats and dogs also suffer from scabies. However the species of mites that afflicts animals is quite different from the ones that cause scabies in humans. These ones are unable to survive for very long on the human skin.

Symptoms start to appear after the incubation period. The symptoms are in the form of pimple sized small irritations that are very itchy and cover all the parts of the body that are infected.

The itching worsens with time because the mites multiply in number very quickly, and before very long an untreated person could literally have thousands of mites crawling all over his or her skin. It is therefore important to see a doctor as soon as the first symptoms appear, or get hold of home remedies for scabies.