The causes of scabies and risk factors for scabies that need to be watched out for

Scabies or scabies is one of the most common skin diseases. One of the studies published by Current Infectious Disease Reports, revealed that there are at least 300 million cases of scabies per year worldwide. What are the causes of scabies, aka scabies?

What causes scabies (scabies)?

There are certain conditions that can increase a person's chances of contracting the mite that causes scabies or showing symptoms of scabies.

These risk factors are grouped into risks related to health conditions, lifestyle, and environmental situations.

1. Immune system conditions

Anyone can get the mites that cause scabies, but a weak immune system condition can cause mites to reproduce more quickly.

As happened in the condition of crusted scabies. In ordinary scabies, the number of mites that infect is only 10-15, but in crusted scabies a person can have thousands to millions of mites in their skin.

So far, the condition of crusted scabies occurs in people whose immune system is not working optimally, such as:

• HIV sufferers
• People undergoing chemotherapy or immunosuppressant treatment
• Patients with leukemia or blood cancer

2. Work

People who work in certain places are also at a higher risk of developing scabies. Some of them are nurses, doctors, or health care workers who have close and regular physical contact with people with scabies.

In this condition, maintaining personal hygiene is not enough. You need to avoid direct skin contact by protecting yourself using gloves and a face mask to minimize the risk of transmitting the mites that cause scabies.

3. Living environment

The mites that cause scabies can be transmitted easily in closed living environments of large numbers of people, such as homes, dormitories, prisons, child care and nursing homes.

Therefore, if you are a person who lives or is full of activities in that environment, you should always be vigilant. As a preventive measure for scabies, try to always avoid prolonged physical contact with the sufferer while not wearing the same clothes or cloth.

Keeping the living environment clean from the mites that cause scabies is also important to avoid recurrence of infection. Wash clothes separately and use hot water and a high temperature dryer to make sure the mites that cause scabies are really dead.

Finally, make sure you also regularly clean places that have the potential to become a nest of mites such as sofas, mattresses, and carpets vacuum cleaner and keep the room humidity optimally.

How to avoid the mites that cause scabies

The best way to prevent yourself from becoming infected with the mite that causes scabies (scabies) is to avoid or reduce direct and prolonged skin contact with the sufferer.

What if you currently live in the same house or have close interaction with someone who has scabies? Follow these steps to prevent transmission of scabies:

1. Do not borrow goods from each other

Do not use the same clothes, towels, combs, sheets, or pillowcases as the person with scabies. In fact, make sure you don't sleep on the same bed as him. The more frequent or prolonged contact between skins occurs, the greater the risk of transmission of scabies.

2. Wash items separately

Wash clothes, towels, sheets, and other objects that the mites may be living in in hot water. Make sure to wash items belonging to the person who has scabies separately from other laundry. Rinse thoroughly, then dry in the sun.

Once dry, make sure you seal the item with airtight plastic for at least 72 hours so that the mites really die.

Meanwhile, items that cannot be washed, such as home rugs, should be cleaned regularly with a vacuum cleaner.

3. Keeping the house clean

It is important to always keep every room in the house clean and hygienic to prevent mites from moving around.

Try to keep the room temperature, especially the bedroom, warm or open the window blinds as long as the sun is still in the sky so that the light can enter and kill the mites.