What is scabies, how can it be treated and prevented

Scabies is an infection of the skin caused by little mites that burrow inside it and cause itchy bumps to appear at the surface of the skin. It is contagious and it can easily be transmitted from one person to another by direct skin to skin contact. Those infected with scabies should be kept away from others so that they don't spread the illness.

The mites that cause scabies are so tiny that you need a magnifying glass to see them. Their scientifical name is Sarcoptes scabiei, and thy look like little eight legged spiders. The bad part is that they can multiply quite quickly because if nothing is done to remove them they start laying eggs in the skin.

The first symptom that appears in the case of a scabies infection is severe itching of the skin. The areas that begin to itch vary from one patient to another and the itching can be lighter or worse. Most patients reported that it gets worse during the night time. After a few days, the skin in the affected areas gets thicker, gets a red color, and lot of scratch marks appear on it.

Scabies usually appears first on the skin from the hands and legs, and then starts to spread to the wrists and other areas if nothing is done to treat it. It can spread from one place to another if the patient scratches the affected skin and then touches other areas of the body.

You can recognize scabies if you see that small red itchy marks appears on the skin, and their number keeps increasing. After a month the itching is unbearable and the patients can't even sleep because of it, so seeing a doctor as soon as you see the first signs is very important if you want the treatment to be easy and effective.

The doctors examine your skin and they usually take a sample from its surface to examine it closely and look for the mites. If the diagnosis indicates scabies then treatment must begin soon before the mites lay more eggs. The treatment is simple, you need to apply the prescribed creams and lotions all over your body, both in the affected and in the clean areas, because you can't tell where the mites have laid their eggs. The ointments that doctors prescribe kill the mites and their eggs, but the skin remains irritated and the itching may persist for a while, but in a few weeks you will be cured. The treatment must be followed by the one infected and by those that were in close contact with him because it's very likely that they are infected too.

You can try to prevent scabies if you know that one of your friends or family members have it by avoiding skin to skin contact with them and by properly cleaning your clothes and your skin.