The symptoms of scabies can take as long as 8 weeks to appear after the initial infestation has taken place but the victim is infectious at this time and can unknowingly pass on the disease.
Regular Scabies:
Scabies Rash Between Fingers
If you have been infected the most obvious symptom of scabies will be a rash on the skin which takes on the appearance of small red colored bumps or blisters and these may or may not have bloody crusts on them. The rash will only affect certain parts of the body such as the backs of the elbows, between the fingers, around the waist, the feet, the genitals, around nipples and the bottom.
In very small children this rash will appear predominantly on the soles of the feet, palms of the hands, the face, head and neck.
You should be aware that although symptoms may seem severe in terms of the number of blisters or bumps which appear on your body this bears no significance on the number of mites you have been infested with. In fact, in an average case of an adult infected by scabies there are seldom more than 10 to 15 living mites present.
Although difficult to see with the naked eye another sign or symptom of scabies are the tunnels created by the mites as they burrow into the skin. These may appear as small (between 2 to 15 mm in length) lines which look like threads and can vary from red to brown to grey in color around affected areas of the body. It has to be said however, that quite often scratch marks where itching is unbearable can be easily mistaken for these.
The other main symptom of scabies is the unbearable, relentless itch which never goes away. In the beginning the itching is fairly mild but without treatment will over time increase in intensity until it becomes impossible to get any sleep. It is this relentless nature of the itching (especially at night) which makes scabies unique when compared with other skin conditions which cause this type of discomfort.
Crusted Or Norwegian Scabies:
This is a far more severe type of scabies which often starts off as regular scabies but due to an adverse skin reaction.
Crusted or Norwegian Scabies
crusted scabies form with hundreds of thousands perhaps even millions of itch mites present in the skin.
The difference between this type of scabies and regular scabies is that any part of the body can be affected even the head and scalp and there is no itching just a thick crust which looks like warts covering affected areas – sometimes mistaken for psoriasis. The tendency is for individuals with weak immune systems to be most susceptible to crusted scabies for example the very young, the elderly, pregnant women, people having chemotherapy and so on.
The sheer volume of mites present make crusted scabies extremely contagious with even a very limited amount of physical contact spreading the disease. A healthy person becoming infected from someone with crusted scabies will most likely only contract regular scabies because a healthy immune system seems to be able to disrupt the breeding cycle of the itch mites meaning that there are usually no more that about 15 present on the host at any given time.
