Scabies Essay -- essays research papers

Scabies While sitting around your house, watching television, you notice that you have been scratching your arm and in between your fingers for a little while. After taking a closer look you notice something that you assume is a rash and just ignore it. The next day however you notice that the rash has spread and that you think you see burrows in your skin. Then it hits you, the weekend that you spent away on vacation in that not so expensive hotel to save a couple of dollars has now cost you more money in the long run. You must go see your doctor to be treated for scabies! Scabies mites are distributed worldwide, affecting all races, ages and socioeconomic classes in all climates. Sarcoptes scabei, human itch, or mange mites, are in the arthropod class Arachnida, subclass Acari, family Sarcoptidae. These mites burrow under the skin, living in linear burrows. Other races of scabies may cause infestations in other mammals such as domestic cats, dogs, pigs, and horses. It should be noted that races of mites found on other animals could not establish infestations in humans. They may cause temporary itching due to dermatitis but they do not tunnel into the skin. The mode of transmission is primarily person-to-person contact. Newly emerged impregnated females will crawl onto the uninfected person. The mite will hold onto the skin using suckers attached to the two most anterior pairs of legs. They will then burrow into the skin. Transmission may also occur via fomites (e.g., bedd...