Defeating scabies

• 26 October 2009 at 18:47
• Diary

Fuck, it's really hard to get rid of scabies. But if I managed to annihilate it, so can everyone! A little advice to help you if you're infected.

1. Keeping morale

First of all, it must have hit you to learn you had scabies. I was in a quite stressful moment and under pressure, I cried, I thought it would fuck up the trip I've been preparing for months to South America, and so on. In the end, I managed to get rid of this fucking bitch of scabies, be brave!

Then, you must have thought you were dirty or that you had sex with unclean people. It's completely false: scabies affect all kinds of people. By the way, I checked with my friends and my sexual partners, nobody had it. So it's very possible that I got it during a skin or even indirect contact with some random infected person (in a queue, at the gym maybe...).

Also, you may hesitate touching your relatives or shaking hands with strangers. Usually, a handshake is okay. Hugging someone very tight for a few minutes though is risky. Not being able to touch people is something that I found very depressing, especially since it took me two months to be sure I was clean.

2. Knowing

Sarcoptes, the mite responsible for scabies, doesn't survive any longer than three days without a host, because it needs to feed with your blood.

The treatments against scabies are efficient, the problem is not to reinfect yourself by touching contaminated objects or staying with infected people that are not being treated.

When the mite is not on a human body, it stays in fabrics. It can also stay some time on pets, but not contaminate them (animals have each their own scabies, different from the human one).

The rashes are not caused by the mite itself, but by the waste left behind by females in your skin where she lays eggs (yeah, she shits inside your skin). The males stay on surface, like most other mites.

After treatment, you may still have rashes until two months later. It's normal, your skin takes time to get rid of all the shit left by the mite.

Sarcoptes have a 20-day reproduction cycle.

3. Organising

Plan a few sets of clothes (at least 4) that you haven't worn recently (at least 4 days before) that will stay with you all along the treatment. Personally, I took shirts with long sleeves and long trousers in order to avoid contact with people or objects I could have contaminated. (I also washed them before wearing them, and was washing them everyday and wearing them always in the same order.)

Wash everything you can: clothes, bedsheets, everything in the washing machine at 60 degrees minimum, as sarcoptes die at 55 (I put everything at 90!). then iron the clothes you're about to wear and insist on seams (for jeans, for example).

All that can't be washed must be hoovered and sprayed with anti-parasitic bombs (including mattresses!!). In France, there's a very efficient product called "A-PAR". In England, it doesn't exist but apparently the insecticide Raid against cockroaches works because it contains permethrin, lethal for sarcoptes, I couldn't confirm though. Mattresses must also be turned over. All cloth and bedsheet that are not washed must be put in plastic bags for at least 4 days to keep the mites inside and leave them to die. I kept everything in bags for a whole month!

Your housemates should all do the treatment with you. I live in a big house with 20 people so it wasn't possible. Only two of my closest friends did it with me. Nobody else got infected, except a friend who moved out. (That was handy!)

As a true hypocondriac, I also bought loads of gloves because I was afraid to re-infect myself with my phone, my keys, my Tube card (even though they don't normally stay on plastic stuff, just fabrics).

4. The treatment

In England, I've been prescribed permethrin. It's a cream you put on your whole body (yeah, the whole body, even the head - the doctor even told me I should shave my beard to put the cream more easily on my chin) and keep it at least 8 hours (I kept it for 12!). A single treatment should be enough, but you'd better do two as eggs are apprently more resistant. Eggs take a week to hatch, so do the treatment again a week later to destroy the newborns. These won't have time to reproduce since they have a 20-day reproduction cycle. Personally, given how paranoid I am, I did the treatment 5 weeks in a row! Some also recommend keeping the cream on you for three whole days each time (you put it again after the shower) to avoid re-infection but it hasn't been necessary for me.

In France, another treatment is available, said to be very efficient: ivermectin. This medicine is pills that you swallow (dosage depends on your weight) and containing ivermectine, a powerful anti-parasitic product that goes in your blood and poison the mites who are going to agonise, suffer a lot and die. The treatment is 100% efficient 12 hours after ingestion and for three days. Then, its power starts decreasing. that's why it's very efficient: since it acts for 3 days, there are few risks you may get contaminated again with contaminated objects, even though you should still wash and desinfect everything. You should repeat the treatment two weeks later but it's usually unnecessary (but I did it anyway!).

The best, I guess, is to do both treatments at the same time.

5. Keeping up

It may take a long time before you can tell you got rid of it. It took me two months, especially because I'm paranoid. If you're unsure, feel free to repeat the treatment and wash everything again, and stuff. It's very tiring but it's worth it. You don't wanna live like a recluse all your life. Feel free to harass your doctor all the time if you have doubts, or even check with a dermatologist.

Bon courage, chin up and keep cool!

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