Poor knowledge of scabies, limited access to water, poor hygiene and household poverty were linked to a 2018 scabies outbreak in primary schools in southern Ethiopia, Hawassa University researchers reported in August 2019.
A micrograph of the itch mite Sarcoptes scabiei, which causes scabies. (Josef Reischig / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0) [file photo]
The case–control study, by Kefele Ejigu, Yusuf Haji, Alemayehu Toma and Birkneh Tilahun Tadesse, was published on Aug. 27, 2019 in the peer-reviewed journal Research and Reports in Tropical Medicine.
The team investigated an outbreak declared by the regional health bureau in April and May 2018 in Damboya district of Kembata Tembaro Zone, about 216 kilometres south of Addis Ababa. Scabies was reported from all of the district’s primary schools.
Health workers screened 845 students aged 15 to 25 in nine primary schools and diagnosed 237 with scabies. The study compared them with 474 classmates without skin lesions, for 711 participants in total.
Students with poor knowledge of the disease were about four times as likely to have scabies, the researchers found. Male sex, parents who could not read or write, sharing clothes or beds, low household income, families of more than five, poor access to and use of water, and poor personal hygiene were also independently linked to infestation.
Scabies, caused by a skin mite, affects more than 200 million people worldwide each year, the authors wrote. It causes intense itching that worsens at night and can lead to secondary bacterial infections and, in some cases, heart and kidney disease. Earlier studies cited in the paper put its prevalence in Ethiopia at 6.2 percent among school-age children and 13.6 percent among children under five.
The researchers recommended poverty reduction and awareness campaigns on personal hygiene and efficient water use to prevent outbreaks in schools and other closed institutions.