key: cord-0990208-a188evm3
authors: De Lucia, Mario; Potestio, Luca; Costanzo, Luca; Fabbrocini, Gabriella; Gallo, Lucia
title: Scabies outbreak during COVID‐19: an Italian experience
date: 2021-08-05
journal: Int J Dermatol
DOI: 10.1111/ijd.15809
sha: fb3e53a495c1fe848ac08a18bf025f0a8b7556b6
doc_id: 990208
cord_uid: a188evm3

nan

grade of transmission. 1 The typical symptom of scabies is an intensive pruritus which causes sleep deprivation and deteriorates the daytime quality of life. 1 In vulnerable subjects, scabies can cause a life-threatening condition. 1 In the young and the elderly, scabies can cause a more severe infection. 2 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a pandemic disease which has caused a world health emergency. 3 In an attempt to contain the rapid spread of COVID-19, the Italian Government decided to adopt a "stay-at-home" policy starting on March 10, 2020. The adoption of these restrictive measures forced the population into home confinement.

We report our experience at the Dermatological Clinic of Mycology and Parasitosis of the "Federico II University Hospital" in Naples.

Despite the restrictions and the fear of COVID-19 infection, we carried out our activities.

Patients were referred to us by dermatologists suspecting However, in the last year, we observed a significant increase in percentage of patients positive for scabies (Table 1) compared with the percentage of positive patients per year from 2015 to 2019 (33.03% vs. 23.05-26.10%, P < 0.01). We have also noticed a significant increase of positive percentage for people under 18 (60.02% vs. 27.52-31.20%, P < 0.01) and over 65 (50.01% vs. from 18.00%-22.35%, P < 0.01). A chi-squared test was used to test our hypothesis.

Furthermore, we investigated sociogeographic and sexual features of patients noticing that there was no socioeconomic difference between patients admitted before and after the pandemic period. In fact, our patients found positive to scabies came from both rural and urban areas, not highlighting a prevalent geographical feature.

Although we observed a turnaround between the percentage of sexual prevalence of positive patients ( Due to limitations caused by the pandemic, the therapy and follow-up of patients also changed. In fact, before the pandemic period, we used to cure scabies infection with a topical scabicide (permethrin 5% cream) applied overnight to the entire skin surface (excluding the scalp and face) with a second application, usually a

week after the initial treatment. We checked the patients' status the first and fourth week after the second cycle of treatment.

Since March 2020, we have routinely suggested a third cycle of treatment 10 days after the second one with only one check-up 3 weeks later.

According to the current literature, 4,5 our results show an increase in scabies diagnosis during the last year. 

A systematic review of scabies transmission models and data to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of scabies interventions

Control strategies for scabies

beyond just the lungs: a review of multisystemic involvement by Covid19

Aktas ß H. The explosion in scabies cases during COVID-19 pandemic

Scabies outbreak during home confinement due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic