damn scabies

Okay guys, I know this will raise a few alarms and tickle some fancies but I have scabies. For the past couple of weeks I have been having some terrible itching all over my body and it's been getting progressively worse from day to day. So, I went to see a dermatologist today and he told me that I've got scabies. Chances are, I caught it from Hotel Telang Usan from my recent Sarawak trip.

Here are some quotes from Wikipedia.com regarding Scabies:

"Scabies is a transmissible ectoparasite skin infection characterized by superficial burrows, intense pruritus (itching) and secondary infection. The word scabies comes from the Latin word for "scratch" (scabere)."

"Scabies is transmitted readily, often throughout an entire household, by skin-to-skin contact with an infected person (e.g. bed partners, schoolmates, daycare), and thus is sometimes classed as a sexually transmitted disease. Spread by clothing, bedding, or towels is a less significant risk, though possible."

"The symptoms are caused by an allergic reaction that the body develops over time to the mites and their by-products under the skin, thus the 4-6 week "incubation" period. There are usually relatively few mites on a normal, healthy person — about 11 females in burrows. Scabies are microscopic although sometimes they are visible as a pinpoint of white. The females burrow into the skin and lay eggs there. Males roam on top of the skin, however, they can and do occasionally burrow. Both males and females surface at times, especially at night. They can be washed or scratched off (however scratching should be done with a washcloth to avoid cutting the skin as this can lead to infection), which, although not a cure, helps to keep the total population low. Also, humans create antibodies to the scabies mites which do kill some of them."

"Preventing reinfection

All family and close contacts should be treated at the same time, even if asymptomatic. Cleaning of environment should occur simultaneously, as there is a risk of reinfection. Without a host, scabies mites can on average survive up to 48-72 hours away from human skin. [5] (In cases of Crusted Scabies, mites can survive up to 7 days.) Therefore it is recommended to wash all material (such as clothes, bedding, and towels) that has been in contact with all infested persons in the last three days.

Cleaning the environment should include:

• Vacuuming floors, carpets, and rugs.
• Disinfecting floor and bathroom surfaces by mopping.
• Daily washing of recently worn clothes, towels and bedding in hot water and drying in a hot dryer.
• Hot drying pillows for 30 minutes.
• Overnight freezing, in a plastic bag: stuffed animals, brushes, combs, shoes, coats, gloves, hats, robes, wetsuits, etc.
• Quarantine in a plastic bag for two weeks: things that cannot be washed, hot dried, frozen or drycleaned.
• Drycleaning: things that cannot be washed, hot dried or frozen or quarantined."

The shitty thing about scabies is this: it has an incubation period of 4-6 weeks before the symptoms show and the problem with that is anyone who comes in contact with my personal clothings and belongings have a tiny bit of possibility of being infected with scabies. I'm fairly sure that I haven't been sleeping around with anyone so, that shouldn't be a problem. Even more crappy than this is that my whole family is infected thanks to me. So... yeah.

The doctor told me to apply some sort of lotion all over my body at night before going to bed and tomorrow morning I'll have a grand time cleaning EVERYTHING in my house. From bedsheets and pillows to sofas and stuffed toys. Haih.

So, friends. Please keep an eye out for your own body because if you start feeling itching between the crevices on your body such as between your fingers, armpit, underneath your knees or pelvis and you seem to have those mosquito looking bites on your body that itches the lemons out of you, then please get it checked out and take preventive measures.

If you caught it from me, then I'm really sorry. Just let me know and I'll buy you a drink.

Aww... damn.