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Scabies infections explode in Spain
Spanish doctors believe the irritating mite has developed immunity against treatments
Spain has no shortage of biting and stinging creatures that make a nuisance of themselves in the summer, but one little talked-about infection is currently spreading through the country at alarming speed: scabies.
The itchy disease is carried by the Sarcoptes scabiei mite whose larvae bury under the skin and is usually spread through contact with another infected person, their clothing or belongings. Similar to lice, scabies lives quite happily on soft furnishings so if the critters make their way into the home, virtually everything has to be thoroughly washed.
Since there’s no obligation in Spain to report a scabies infection the exact number of annual cases is unknown and the best estimate can be gleaned from the amount of antiparasitic treatments purchased in pharmacies. And this is where the data get scary, since the number of medications for scabies skyrocketed from just 200,000 in 2017 to a staggering 1.4 million last year.
While many doctors blame user error for this explosion – treatments not being applied correctly and such, still more believe the mite have developed a tolerance for permethrin, the active ingredient in most creams supposed to kill the infection.
The problem, in any case, has reached such proportions that the health system has begun to review its protocols to deal with the disease.
Miquel Casals, head of paediatric dermatology at Hospital Parc Taulí in Sabadell (Barcelona), believes the parasite has almost certainly become immune to the drugs: “There are patients who have received five and six cycles of this treatment and the response is not what it was before, many primary care doctors repeat to us. It seems clear that we are facing a resistance problem.”
Ultimately, the cost of scabies treatments, which require a prescription and are financed by the state, is eight times more expensive than in 2017, increasing from around three million euros per year to 25 million.
Image: Cixia via Wikimedia Commons
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