Scabies

[RasputinDO]

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Had a patient with scabies in the clinic the other day, only touched his hands a few times and washed my hands several times afterwards. How easy is it to pick up from casual contact like that??

 

[InertQuail]

Had a patient with scabies in the clinic the other day, only touched his hands a few times and washed my hands several times afterwards. How easy is it to pick up from casual contact like that??

They've probably already climbed into your soul, and once they're there, there's no amount of permethrin that can stop them. I'd suggest stabbing yourself in the heart. At this point it might be the only way to stop them.

Truthfully, though, if you did get scabies, what a badass war story for your personal statement. That's true dedication to derm! The willingness and the ability to truly sympathize with the skin-impaired.

If you're neither a dermatologist nor planning on going into derm, then you just have scabies, which is a bummer. You should probably go to a dermatologist and get it checked out.

 

[JaggerPlate]

Had a patient with scabies in the clinic the other day, only touched his hands a few times and washed my hands several times afterwards. How easy is it to pick up from casual contact like that??

Are you a DO planning on going into derm??

 

[goodies]

Had a patient with scabies in the clinic the other day, only touched his hands a few times and washed my hands several times afterwards. How easy is it to pick up from casual contact like that??

i'm not a dermie yet, but from my personal experience having done many months of derm rotations and encountering many patients with scabies... i actually touched their hands (shook their hands) prior to examining them... and then after they left i washed my hands right away. haven't gotten scabies yet, so it seems to be not too extremely contagious as long as you wash your hands soon after and as long as you don't have any cuts or open skin.

 

[abcxyz0123]

scabies....sounds like "scary rabies"

 

[scumbagderm]

My understanding of it is this: we all get scabies. The difference is the response we have to them. I asked this question in derm clinic because a baby came in with full-body scabies and the parents were unaffected as well as another child in the house. My attending said that me and you probably have or have had scabies on us but the clinical "scabies" is merely our immune response to the salivary antigens.

Not that we should'nt diligently scrub ourselves to death (like the main character in gattaca who has to scrub away the first layer of skin every morning in the incinerator). I plan on scrubbing OCD-like w/ all scabies patients but there's no point in being neurotic about it.

 

[N-Surge]

The dermatitis specialist at your future residency program will love you.

Please do not over wash your hands. You will pay dearly... However, if you do then Aquaphor will be your best friend. Apply liberally before sleeping. Awake with a fresh new set of hands! 🙂

I spoke with an attending during one of my away rotations who stated he has never contracted the little buggers during his 30+ years of practice, having never worn gloves, avoiding contact, and so on.

 

[Dermapp]

As I understand, it's not that easy to catch run of the mill scabies via casual contact. Norwegian scabies (crusted scabies) is much easier to catch. Of course, should you develop symptoms later, you can get your pcp or dermatologist to write you a prescription for permethrin or ivermectin.

 

[2oRadio]

Crusted scabies only occurs to immunocompromised population I thought?

 

[Dermapp]

Looks like you're right. Thanks for correcting me.