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 students at Truro and Penwith College have been warned that several students at its Truro campus have caught the disease, which can be transmitted via shared towels, bed linen and even cushions.
The warning email issued by the school advises parents to take children with an itchy rash that is worse at night to their GP and tell the doctor they have been in contact with scabies.
‘If they are diagnosed with scabies it is important that all members of the household are also treated at the same time, regardless of whether they have any symptoms,’ CornwallLive reported.
More commonly associated with Victorian or Dickensian times, scabies manifests as an intensely itchy and bumpy rash caused by the saliva, eggs and faeces of the parasitic mite Sarcoptes scabiei.
Hospital cases of the condition — which can, in rare cases, lead to life-threatening blood infections — jumped by 73 per cent since last year, according to the latest data.
The new outbreak comes just months after GPs warned of a rise in cases of the infection with the number diagnoses by family doctors ‘above the five-year average and rising’.
This followed another warning in January about infection rates doubling in a year, leading to fears the mites were becoming resistant to routine medications.
Parents of students at Truro and Penwith College have been warned that several students at its Truro campus have caught the disease, which can be transmitted via shared towels, bed linen and even cushions
More commonly associated with Victorian or Dickensian times, scabies manifests as an intensely itchy bumpy rash caused by the saliva, eggs and faeces of the parasitic mite Sarcoptes scabiei (pictured)
Scabies is highly contagious and is infamous for sweeping through places with shared accommodation, such as university halls, care homes, prisons and immigration detention facilities.
People being to experience the characteristic rash, which looks like a row of raised dots as the mites burrow into the skin and lay eggs, up to eight weeks after contact with an infected person or their belongings.
Scabies is most often transmitted by prolonged or frequent skin-to-skin contact, such as sex or the sharing of towels, bedding, or clothing.
The infection is incurable without treatment.
NHS guidance recommends using either permethrin or malathion creams, which must be rubbed all over the body, including under the nails.
It should be kept on for up to 24 hours and has to be repeated after a week.
As an alternative, evidence suggests ivermectin — taken in pill form — is safe and equally as effective.
European regulators recommend it in two doses two weeks apart for standard scabies. It can be used alongside the creams for more severe cases.
In the UK, however, a prescription can be issued only by a specialist — usually a dermatologist — for severe cases, or to treat an outbreak, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
While scabies is not typically dangerous by itself, 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 hyper-infestations of the mites called crusted scabies.
Truro and Penwith College is a lauded sixth form college in the South West, that was the first tertiary college to be awarded ‘Outstanding’ status by Ofsted in 2006, according to the school’s website.
Its also been listed in the top 20 state schools for students getting places in Oxford or Cambridge.
