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Medical Treatment for Scabies.
The most appropriate treatment is for a topical medication or cream to treat
the scabies and anti-itch medications for relief.
- The medication most commonly used to kill the mites is called Elimite (or
permethrin cream). The medication is applied from the head area to the bottom
of the feet. It is left on for 10-14 hours and then washed off in the shower.
It is best to apply at bedtime and then wash off in the morning. This
treatment is then repeated in 1 week. This is safe for use in children as
young as 2 months. An older medication called Kwell (lindane) is rarely used
because it is not very safe in children and may cause neurotoxicity
(dizziness, seizures). Pregnant women may receive the permethrin once or can
receive another medication, sulfur in petroleum, at night for three nights.
- Many different anti-itch medications are available in the antihistamine
class. The most common is diphenhydramine (Benadryl). Other medications used
aretriamcinolone 0.1% cream, hydroxyzine (Atarax), cetirizine (Zyrtec), and
promethazine (Phenergan).
- All family members and close contacts should be treated. If a child with
scabies attends daycare or a person is institutionalized (such as in a nursing
home or prison), then staff in contact with the person as well as others
should be treated. It is best to treat everyone at the same time to avoid
reinfection.
- Occasionally, the rash area can become infected. This is separate from the
scabies and is usually a bacterial infection. If this occurs, it is treated
with an oral antibiotic or an antibiotic ointment applied to the area.
Medical treatment of scabies doesn't usually differ much from the home
remedies in that they often use Permethrin based creams to kill the scabies
(like Elimite dermal cream), and your typical anti-histamine creams to relieve
the itching.
Your doctor will more than likely scrape a bit of skin off to get a sample,
testing it for the eggs, fecal matter, or the mites themselves. But your
physician should know that a misdiagnosis of the problem is one of the reasons
scabies infestations last as long as they do, and why they're still such a big
problem in highly-populated areas.
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