Scabies: Clinical manifestations and diagnosis

IntroductionScabies is an infectious disease caused by an obligate parasite of human skin – Sarcoptes scabiei var. hominis. The disease affects people regardless of their age, sex or socioeconomic status. The transmission occurs mainly through direct contact with an infected person as well as personal items including clothes, bedclothes, etc.AimThe aim of the paper is to present a variety of clinical manifestations of scabies as well as diagnostic methods used.DiscussionThe diagnosis of scabies can often times be difficult, especially if there are concurrent diseases, with pruritus being a symptom. The skin lesions may vary in appearance, depending on the local and general immune response. The diagnosis rests on finding characteristic signs of the disease accompanied by the pruritus becoming particularly intense at night. The use of various diagnostic tools allows for confirmation of the diagnosis, with varied sensitivity and specificity, which is based on confirmation of the presence of the parasite.ConclusionsScabies still remains a major public health problem worldwide. Research is hindered mainly due to difficulty in obtaining the material from infested people as well as a lack of an in vitro system. To date, there is no diagnostic method for detecting scabies infection, which would give a 100% reliable result. Each of the methods mentioned above has some limitations in use. It seems that the sensitivity of those methods will vary, depending on a patient's clinical features.