These microscopic mites, which burrow under your skin and cause ferocious itching, are incredibly hard to get rid of – and cases in the UK have soared. What is causing the outbreak, and is there anything we can do about it?
L
ouise (not her real name) is listing the contents of a bin liner she has packed with fresh essentials in case of emergency. Clothes, toothbrushes, hairbrushes, a teddy … “Although it should be two teddies,” she re-evaluates, quickly. I can hear her trying to quell her panic.
A diehard survivalist preparing for catastrophe? Actually, a beleaguered 44-year-old mother recovering from scabies – an itchy rash caused by microscopic mites that burrow under human skin. Far-fetched as it sounds, emergency evacuation is exactly what she, her partner and children (six and four) resorted to in November in a desperate bid to beat the bugs. She is now on tenterhooks in case they return.
Telltale spots had appeared in September, first on her own body, later on her son’s and daughter’s. Two rounds of topical treatment followed, alongside a frantic maelstrom of laundry. They were washing clothes and bedding after every use, as well as steaming mattresses, duvets and sofas, churning through hundreds of disposable gloves, “boiling the kids’ crocs”, and quarantining anything else they could think of in bin bags. When all those measures failed, it was time for the nuclear option: they took the kids out of school for a week and rented a caravan near their home in south-west England. They changed into fresh clothes at the door of their home, then travelled by steam-cleaned car, before repeating treatment for a third time. A fresh teddy was needed for their daughter on arrival, and a replacement before leaving.
