SCABIES !!!!! - I was exposed to scabies! Ahhh!!

CAMSMOM1 wrote: One of my little girls from work has had a skin rash for a month now. It got worse & worse. Her Grandparents thought it was Excema, but the treatment wasn't working. She was scratching her skin till it bleed, and they ended up sending her to school with gloves on her hands, so she wouldn't scratch. One day this little girl told me, "My skin rash is contagious!" So I asked her Gparents what she had, and they wouldn't tell me, and said their gdaughter was lying.

Long story short, she has SCABIES!!!! The school nurse called me on Friday, to tell me the news. She made copies of a letter to hand out to the parents in my program, since all the kids were exposed. That was fun trying to explain this to the parents.

Here's a part of what was in the notice I gave out, " Scabies is a common and highly contagious skin disease, spread by direct contact wtih an infected person, their clothing or linens. Scabies is caused by an almost invisible organism called the "itch mite" which burrows into the outermost layer of skin to LAY EGGS!!! The itching caused by the mites tends to get worse at night!!"

I have had direct contact with this child for a MONTH!!! She gives me a hug everyday, and I sit next to her to help her with her homework. The nurse said that the disease (scabies) can lie dormant in the body for 3 weeks before it appears!!!!!!!!!!!! So I have a chance that I have it, or other kids in my work! One of the boys came down with an exact looking skin rash last week!

There was a huge article in our local newspapaer because their was an outbreak of Scabies in our local hospital. I'm really starting to get paranoid! And I'm very UPSET at her Grandparents for not taking care of this sooner!!!

As a teacher, I've encountered many contagious things (chicken pox, head lice, TB, mono, strep, whooping cough.....but never scabies!)

Just the thought of it makes me itch! I sure hope we don't have an outbreak at work! The mites can live in the carpet, and fabic on our furniture. So I have 3 weeks to find out if I have it, or any of the other staff or children have it!

kayla's mama replied: Listen Girlie......Do Not wait until you get the first sign of them.

Go to your doc. tell them that you've been exposed and get treatment. They give you this nasty smelling stuff you put all over your body (I mean ALL over your body) for 6 hrs. then you wash it off. You do this everynight for 2-3 days. That should get them. Also get some lice spray and spray your furniture and your carpet and vacumm everyday. Its alot of work but it does get rid of them.

We got a puppy from someone out in the country. We just thought this poor puppy was miss treated and left outside, but NO it had the worst case of scabies (mange)the vet has ever seen in his 30 yrs of practice Needless to say our house was nasty. Just thinking about it gives me the creepy crawlies. Surprisingly Jason never got it as bad as I did. I slept upstairs for almost 3 months trying to get rid of those darn things. Actually the first night we slept in the same bed we concieved Kayla

If you need more info, you know where to find me

jcc64 replied: My ds had scabies when he was about 4 or 5- and we were told he probably got it from the sand at the beach?? We all had to use a prescription creme, which was a one time application all over the body below the neck. I don't remember it smelling badly, I didn't have to do anything to my furniture or linens or clothing, and it was gone as soon as we used to meds. I don't remember it being a big deal.

kimberley replied: yuck! my brother had scabies when we were teens. we just washed everything in hot water and we didn't catch it.. it helped that his room was in the basement too lol. his cleared right up with meds too. hope they stay away.

luvmykids replied: ITA agree that you should go ahead and call your doc, maybe if you can do something ASAP you won't have a full outbreak.

luvbug00 replied: eep !! I'd be livid if I worked there or my kids went there. I hope you don't get it!!!

amymom replied: Ann, you definetly should call your doctor. Remember that rash you had a few weeks ago. Talk to them about it.

My3LilMonkeys replied: Just a point from the other side of the fence - my best friend caught scabies when we were in 6th grade. We found out she had them the day after she had spent the night at my house and we had slept in the same bed. I didn't catch them but one of my sisters did.

So while it is better to be safe than sorry, there's no guarentee that you'll get them. And like Jeanne said, it really wasn't a big deal. Just the cream - no treatments for furniture or anything.

NEWMOM05 replied: I would go to the Dr's and preventative treatment.

kayla's mama replied: I only posted about the treatment on the furniture and carpets because we had them really bad. In most cases yes, you don't have to go to the extreme that we had to. I hope you don't. But with you being in such close quaters and heavy contact with the kiddos you never know. They are some nasty like things. I really hope that you don't have them.

Just to give you an idea of how bad we had them. The vet scraped the puppy just like a tiny scratch and looked under a microscope and he saw I kid you not 50 alive and atleast 30-50 that were dead. He was on the lowest power. I couldn't believe it.

1lilpeanut2love replied: WOW that is so crazy ANN!! I agree with everyone else, you really should call the doctor!! It is better to be safe then to be sorry! KWIM. I hope you don't get them or have them.

jacobsmama replied: Ann,



Welcome back BTW...
Sorry to hear about this but I would also agree to call dr and just get the cream for a preventative thing.

My3LilMonkeys replied:
WOW! I have never heard of a case that bad, no wonder you had to do extra treatments!!

CAMSMOM1 replied: Today was quite an adventure at work! Since I didn't get the notices until Friday, most of the parents weren't informed until today, which I had to be the one to tell them. Most of the parents were very upset, and concerned. One of the Mom's is a nurse who works at a convilecent (sp) hospital. And they recently had an outbreak there. She gave me a lot of helpful information, which I was able to pass on to the other parents.

It usually starts in the hands (inbetween the fingers), and other warm spots on the body (elbows, armpits, private areas).

Scabies can lie dormate in your body for up to 6 weeks or 60 days, before symptoms appear. So many of us could have it, without knowing it for many more weeks.

And like someone said on here, that you have to use hot water to wash your sheets, garments. And that there is a prescription lotion that you use, from your neck down (scabies doesn't go above the neck) And it's pretty easy to treat, but very contagious when not treated.

2 more students have gotten scabies since this little girls outbreak. And I learned from her Grandmother, that she actually has had scabies since December!!!! So it's been 3 months, and she was just treated. And both of her Grandparents got Scabies from her. That's why they recommend treating all the family. So we all have to be on the look out for the symptoms.

And Brandi, I think you & this little girl I'm talking about, had a really bad outbreak. She was covered in bumps from her neck to her feet. And since it was misdiagnosed for 3 months, she got really bad. I feel so bad for anyone who has to deal with this. I sure hope I don't get it. I'm going to call my doctor to see if I should treat myself now, before I see any symptoms. Just to be on the safe side.

mckayleesmom replied: Hey Ann.....maybe that is what caused that rash on your leg???

Hillbilly Housewife replied: yuck. My mom had it a while ago... we teased her about it, because it can be considered an STD (since it can live in your privies). She had the nasty cream, nobody else caught it.

redchief replied: Scabies, like head lice, ringworm and other fun little bugs are naturally occuring and are not an indicator of the cleanliness or lack thereof of the infected. These nasty little mites live on the blood of human hosts. Jeanne, you asked if they could reside in sand, and the answer is, yes they can but not for long. They can also live in your furniture, carpets and clothing, but only for a couple of days. They can have a long dormant cycle as long as they have a warm host, but die in normal air after about 48 hours. They live on human blood and the most common transmission, as Ann said, is by skin-to-skin contact.

I've been exposed several times by patients, but have never contracted them. I always wash my hands thoroughly after contact with a patient and it appears that contact with soap and warm water prior to their getting under the skin is sufficient, at least most of the time.

I hope you don't have to deal with an outbreak.

redchief replied:
They like to reside in the genitals and other joints because it's warm there. They aren't considered an STD because they're not a disease. They are, however, considered a risk during sex because they normally spread through skin contact and I can't think of a way to get more skin contact between two people.

CAMSMOM1 replied:

The rash on my leg doesn't look anything like Scabies, since I've seen it on this child. The rash is still there on my leg, but it's gotten a lot better & hasn't spread. And I'm thinking it's not a rash, but some broken blood vessels by the way it looks. But it's definetly not Scabies, Scabies looks like a red, little bumps that are elevated.

Ed...I heard that too, that they can only live 24-48 hours after they are off of the skin. I have a question for you, I heard from one of the parents that Scabies can actually attack the muscle's in your body, and have also killed people?? This is coming from an parent who just "heard" this, and I wanted to double check and make sure that isnt' true.
Also, since I've been exposed since December, I know I haven't washed my hands when I'm around her. I do put on anti-bacterial hand sanitizer through out the day. I hope that is enough to stop me from getting it, but I admit some days I forget to use the hand sanitizer.
And if I treated myself now with the prescription lotion, would that help if I don't have any symptoms yet? Or would I have to wait until I have symptoms to kill the mites?

redchief replied:
While I'm no expert in scabies, I do know and my most recent research shows that all treatments for scabies involve topical cream. That and the fact that scabies mites reside just under the skin tell me that the mites can't survive where they can't get air to breathe. I would say that is a myth.