Whanganui scabies outbreak a real head scratcher

Healthcare services have been left scratching their heads over what's behind an ongoing scabies outbreak plaguing Whanganui.

The city has been beset by the highly infectious skin disease for about a year.

Scabies is an irritating condition caused by a parasitic mite that burrows into human skin to lay its eggs.

Symptoms can include intense itching - which often worsens at night - and a pimple-like or bumpy rash.

People infected with the scabies might also see thin, raised, wavy grey-white burrows under their skin.

Unichem Pharmacy Springvale owner and pharmacist Melina Holmes said scripts for scabies treatments had skyrocketed.

"Pre this outbreak of scabies - which has been going on a while - we'd probably dispense maybe one person's script every 2-3 months, whereas now we've seen in the 18 days of June, so in two weeks, we've done 28 scripts for people for the tablets."

Scabies was generally treated with insecticide creams and, in difficult cases, Ivermectin tablets.

Holmes said a reason for the outbreak was hard to pin down.

"I mean, obviously it's contagious, so when one person gets it in a family, you have to treat the whole family, and I think it is just a very hard cycle to break and it's very contagious.

"We're seeing rest homes having outbreaks, we're seeing childcare centres having outbreaks and then certain families just keep getting it, cycling through their families."

Mistie Hemingway is primary care clinical systems lead and ageing well nurse prescriber at the Whanganui Health Network.

It had noticed an increase in scripts for scabies treatments across the pharmacies connected to the network's eight general practitioners.

Hemingway said some factors could be contributing to the outbreak.

"You're looking at perhaps sometimes an inability for people to complete treatment fully, so therefore it can spread and it can seem like it's recurrent, because it's not being eradicated in the initial treatment.

"Then, for some people, the recommendations of hot washes can be difficult for some families. They either don't have hot water access for their washing machines or they can't afford the additional hot water."

She said there were steps people could take.

"Protecting themselves is typical hygiene, like making sure laundry, bedding and clothing and linen, towels etc are cleaned regularly, if you know you're in contact with other people within your family or community that have had a recent outbreak of scabies."

Holmes thought the mites were evolving.

"My suspicion is that maybe the scabies - a bit like hair lice back in the day - maybe they're developing some resistance to some of the treatments, which is why we're seeing the creams not working and we're having to use the tablets, the Ivermectin."

Holmes said infections were not the fault of those afflicted.

"You know the person in the rest home, it might have been a visitor or someone's come in, and then unfortunately, it spreads through the rest home and that's just awful."

An infection could be nasty.

"Even when we've treated it, the unfortunate thing with scabies is that a person can be left with a horrible itch on their skin for weeks and sometimes months. That's what we're actually seeing as well and it's really unfortunate, the itch, because that means you can get skin infections."

People who suspected they had symptoms of scabies are recommended to make an appointment to see a health professional.