A leading sixth form college in the South West has been hit by an outbreak of highly contagious scabies – a parasitic infection caused by mites that burrow into the skin.
Parents of Truro and Penwith College students have been warned that several students on the Truro campus have contracted the disease, which can be spread through shared towels, bedding and even pillows.
The school’s warning email advises parents to take children with an itchy rash that gets worse at night to the doctor and tell the doctor that they have been in contact with scabies.
‘If they are diagnosed with scabies, it is important that all members of the household are treated at the same time, regardless of whether they have complaints’ CornwallLive reported.
Scabies, more commonly associated with Victorian or Dickensian times, manifests as an intensely itchy and bumpy rash caused by the saliva, eggs and feces of the parasitic mite Sarcoptes scabiei.
According to the latest data, cases of the condition in hospitals – which can rarely lead to life-threatening blood infections – have risen by 73 percent since last year.
The new outbreak comes just months after GPs warned of a rise in cases of infection, with the number of diagnoses by GPs ‘above the five-year average and rising’.
This followed another warning in January about a doubling of infections in a year, leading to fears the mites could become resistant to routine medications.
Parents of Truro and Penwith College students have been warned that several students on the Truro campus have contracted the disease, which can be spread through shared towels, bedding and even pillows
Scabies, more commonly associated with Victorian or Dickensian times, manifests as an intensely itchy, bumpy rash caused by the saliva, eggs and feces of the parasitic mite Sarcoptes scabiei (pictured)
Scabies is highly contagious and is known to spread through places of shared accommodation, such as university buildings, care homes, prisons and immigration detention centres.
People can experience the characteristic rash, which looks like a row of raised dots as the mites burrow into the skin and lay eggs, for up to eight weeks after contact with an infected person or their belongings.
Scabies is usually transmitted through prolonged or frequent skin-to-skin contact, such as sex or sharing towels, bedding or clothing.
The infection is incurable without treatment.
NHS guidelines recommend using permethrin or malathion creams, which should be rubbed all over the body, including under the nails.
It should be kept for a maximum of 24 hours and repeated after a week.
Alternatively, evidence suggests that ivermectin – taken in pill form – is safe and equally effective.
European regulators recommend it in two doses two weeks apart for standard scabies. It can be used in addition to the creams for more severe cases.
In Britain, however, a prescription can only be issued by a specialist – usually a dermatologist – for severe cases or to treat an outbreak, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
Although scabies itself is not usually dangerous, scratching by the infected can lead to secondary bacterial infections of the skin.
People with compromised immune systems, such as cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, are vulnerable to hyperinfestations of the mites called scabies.
Truro and Penwith College is an acclaimed sixth form college in the South West, which, according to the school’s website, was the first tertiary college to be awarded ‘Outstanding’ status by Ofsted in 2006.
It is also listed in the top 20 state schools for students gaining a place at Oxford or Cambridge.