Scabies Treatment

If you are looking for an effective scabies treatment, over-the-counter cortisone creams are discouraged.  Topical prescription medications are used to treat scabies infestations, including lotions that contain lindane or crotamiton, which are applied from the neck down.  Lindane is a pesticide that is associated with neurological damage, poisoning, cancer, and environmental contamination. As a Scabies Treatment it’s use in adults is controversial and it is no longer used in children.

As a scabies treatment, coating the body with a mixture of petroleum jelly and 5% sulfur for 3 consecutive nights has also proven beneficial. Itching caused by the absorption of mites and their feces into the body can last for weeks, leading people to believe they are still infected.

The lesions caused by scabies should be kept clean to prevent infection. Physicians may advise wearing cotton gloves during and after treatment to prevent breaking the skin by scratching, which can cause secondary infection.

The parasites cannot survive away from the body for more than a few days, so contaminated clothing and bedding can be sanitized by thorough washing in hot water and storing for 1 or 2 weeks.

Scabies Treatment in the Home

All persons in the household who have had contact with the infected person in the past month must be treated. This would normally include everyone in the home, even if they have no symptoms. (The symptoms may take 4-6 weeks to grow after an being introduced tho the house.)

It is important that the bed linen and clothes of everyone in the household be cleaned thoroughly as scabies may linger for a period of days after being treated.

To prevent the reoccurrence of scabies and to prevent the mites from spreading to others, take these steps:

• Clean all of your clothes and household linens. Using hot water with detergent to wash all clothing, towels and bedding you used at least two days before treatment should do the trick. Dry everything cleaned with high heat. Take the items you can’t wash at home to the dry cleaners.
• Starve the mites. If you can’t get to a dry cleaners, try placing items you can’t wash in a sealed plastic bag and leaving it sealed for a couple of weeks. Mites will die if they don’t eat for a week

Scabies Treatment with Over The Counter Medicines

There are few medicines that can cure a scabies infection. Over-the-counter lice medicines are not strong enough to kill mites, or scabies. If you believe you have scabies, do not use products without a prescription from your doctor on a valid scabies treatment.