Stuff You Should Know - How Scabies Work

Episode Date: March 4, 2010

Scabies is a contagious skin disease with a bad reputation. Tune in as Josh and Chuck discuss this itchy condition -- from the mite that causes it to common cures -- in this episode. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Yeah, so check out the Epson Eco Tank. Just fill and chill available at participating retailers and at epson.com. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready, are you? Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with me as always is Charles W. Chuck Bryant. Yes, you can call me Montezuma.

Yeah, Chuck's been a tad under the weather. Yes. He's been out green Kool-Aid, right? Yeah, it's been awful. Yeah, as most of you may know, we got back from our Guatemala trip and apparently Montezuma's revenge can strike after you return. Yeah, because right when you got back in the airport, when I got back, I was like, I can't believe it and get sick.

Yeah. And then boom, the next day. Yeah, I was pretty vigilant about maintaining a watertight seal in my mouth when I was showering and being like a fat smoker. That's more difficult than you'd think when you're washing your face or hair. Right. So yeah. I think that last night out that you declined to go on drinking rum on the rocks,

I bet it was the ice in the bar. Dude, you drank ice? I did. There's your problem, buddy. Yeah, it was fun. That was worth it. I'd do it again. Oh, Jerry had the ice as well.

And she's fine. Yeah. All right. Okay. Moving on. I'm just going to come out and say it. My friend Mitch had scabies. I was going to ask you why you picked this and I knew there was some reason

I was just praying that it wasn't you. It wasn't me, no. Okay. No. But after reading this, it turns out that the deep, deep shame that Mitch displays whenever he talks about the scabies is maybe a bit misplaced. Yeah. It is not necessarily because he is gross and has poor hygiene or is...

Or promiscuous. Or promiscuous. He may be those things. I don't know. No, he's not. But it has nothing to do with scabies. Right. Which sounds gross.

They should change the name. If they want to get out of that realm of grossness, they should not call it scabies. Well, they would have to change the name of the mite that creates the problem of scabies, the sarcoptus scabii. Yeah. Yeah. That's where it comes from. But I mean, that's such a cool name that they're never going to change scabies.

True. They may call it like sex rash. Right. Right. Right. Or dirty rash. Yeah. They could call it one of those.

But they'll probably stick with scabies instead, right? Yes. So my dirty, dirty friend Mitch, it turns out, wasn't so dirty. And he's one of about 300 million people annually who come down with scabies worldwide. Yeah. A lot more people than you would think. Yeah. Because no one talks about it for reasons that we mentioned.

Right. Yeah. I think it's a lot of times equated with lice. Yeah. And really, when you catch scabies, you can be a very clean person because the mite, the sarcoptus scabii, what happens is the female burrows down into the skin. Yeah. And once she's down there, no soap or water is going to do anything to her.

Yeah. You can do your, what do you call it? The steel wool shower soap and water. Yes. You can do that till the cows come home and you're still going to have the females under your skin laying eggs. Right. And that's your scabies outbreak, buddy. Boom.

So the reason why scabies are so successful at infesting human beings is because once a female scabii enters your skin and digs down. And by the way, I strongly recommend going on the site to read this article. Right. If not for the first image alone. Yeah, the little model of the scabii. Big, full color grossness. Yeah. So the female scabii burrows into your skin and begins to lay eggs.

Yep. And the eggs actually mature. They reach sexual maturity within like 14 days. And so they start doing the same thing. So all it takes is one female scabies mite to create an infestation under your skin. Problem is you don't really notice for up to a couple of months, usually a couple of weeks after that first one gets into your skin. Yeah, that's where you really get in trouble because not only can it really be manifesting itself in your own skin, but you can be spreading it to your family, anyone that's in contact with you. Sexual partners, obviously.

Right. Yeah, because it takes prolonged close contact. Right. And that can be through spending the night with somebody. It can be through sharing a towel with somebody, bedding. You shouldn't be sharing towels anyway. No. No reason.

No. Another one is if you like, let's say I wanted to borrow one of your nice sweaters or your fancy socks that you wear. Which ones? Well, all your socks are fancy. My sock ninja socks? Yeah, sock ninja socks. But you wouldn't have to borrow that because the very magnanimous owner of sock ninja centers both some socks, didn't he? That's right.

But if we were to share clothing, which we don't do, then I could pick up your scabies. Sure. And be itching like crazy. Yes, after a couple of weeks. You know the itching is from? I do, but I want to hear it. It is a reaction from the mites and their feces. That's really gross.

Because I mean, if you're a mite, you got to poop somewhere and if you're burrowed under somebody's skin, that's where you're going to poop. Yep. So yeah, you have an allergic reaction to that. Yeah. And that's the biggest symptom that you're going to know that you have scabies is a rash, big time itching. Right. You're going to have like kind of a pimply, like reddish bump area that forms like a larger rash. Right.

But each one of those bumps generally represents a mite. Yes. The average adolescent who has scabies has about 11. And they could be mistaken for other things like mosquito bites. That's why they're misdiagnosed sometimes too. You know what the dead giveaway is for scabies though? What's that? Well, there's two of them.

Sometimes there's a trail along your skin that actually represents the burrow that the female mite has dug into you. Yeah. The one real dead giveaway is that your itching gets worse at night. Yes. Right. Scabies are photophobic. They don't like the light. Right.

And so once the sun goes down and the lights go out, they really become most active. So if you have like a little pimply rash that itches like crazy, but really itches at night. Yeah. My friends, you have scabies. Yes. And if it's on your wrist, we should talk about where you can get it anywhere on your body. Right. But for adults, the wrist is most common.

And then the elbow, armpit, waist, buttocks between the fingers and then the penis and the nipples. Penis scabies have to be the worst scabies of all. Yeah. I can't imagine. That's all I have to say. I just can't imagine. Well, kids actually chuck get scabies in slightly different areas. Like you said, adults, you listed off the adults with kids.

It's common in the scalp area, the face, right? Neck, palms, face scabies, penis scabies, which is worse. I wouldn't want either. Face scabies, obviously people are going to see. So it might cause some embarrassment. I put all of my money on penis scabies being worse. Okay. I'm down with that.

Chuck. Josh, crusted scabies. Is that where you're going? Yes. Crusted scabies are. Aka Norwegian scabies. Yeah. It makes you wonder what the hell's going on with the Norwegians.

No. They aren't as common, which is a good thing because it's infinitely more gross, I think. It's very severe and it's identified by thick crusts over the skin. And each of these crusts can contain millions of the scabie mites. Right. Remember, we said the adolescent, the average adolescent with scabies has about 11 female scabie mites. Right. If you have Norwegian scabies, you have, like you said, millions under your skin.

You're in big trouble. You're highly, highly contagious. Sure, but they may not itch. No. And that's one of the reasons why you don't get the scabies ratch. From what I took from the article, you get the scabies rash in large part from scratching. Like from scratching your skin over and over again. Exactly.

And you don't get that rash. And one of the reasons why people who get Norwegian scabies don't have that kind of rash and instead get scaly skin is because it infects people in large part who can't itch physically. Yeah. Like the paralyzed, the paraplegic. So sad. Can you imagine though, like if it did itch and not being able to, but would you have sensation? No, that's a good question.

Yeah. Someone will probably write it and tell us. Yeah. So Chuck, one of the reasons why scabies are so insidious, you might say, is because they spread fairly easily. And because the moment that female scabie starts laying eggs, you are contagious. Right. So even if you don't know it. Right.

Yeah. Because like we said, it can take weeks and up to a couple of months for the symptoms to first appear. But the whole time you're being infested and infested and infested. Yeah. Right. But you're still contagious and it spreads fairly easily. So places where people live in close quarters, prisons, nursing homes. Yeah.

Institutions for the criminally insane. Shutter Island. Right. They can have scabies outbreaks fairly easily. Yeah, I would think so. So what happens if you suddenly have a pimply rash on your penis that starts to itch really badly at night? Well, after you shriek in terrifying pain and shock and horror, you should go to a doctor, obviously. First things first.

And the doctor will most likely prescribe a scabicide, prescription strength scabicide. And this is usually topical. It'll be like a lotion, let's say. You got to put all over your body. Lay around for like six or eight hours with this lotion on your body. And hopefully that'll clear it up. Yeah, there's the most readily prescribed scabicide is called Elamite or Elamite. I don't know.

Very clever. That's pharma companies. And there's another one called Lindane. Okay. And both of those are pharmaceutical topical scabicides. Right. And both of them, yeah, you have to leave them for hours. Usually overnight when you wake up, you wash it off.

Right. And usually both are effective after one treatment. Thank God. The horrible thing about scabies is the itching can continue for a couple of weeks after. Right. So you're still freaked out. Like it didn't work. It didn't work.

Right, right. So you really have to kind of white knuckle it after you cover yourself with this stuff and kind of hope that it worked. Well, you can do stuff about the itching, too, though. And we should point out that like Calamine Lotion and these things that you would get for like Poison Ivy or something. Right. That will help the itch, but that doesn't do anything to eradicate the scabies. No. So you need to 1-2 punch it.

Same with cool baths. That's prescribed to help alleviate the horrible, horrible itching. But yeah, it's not going to do anything to eliminate the scabies. Right. So you've got a couple of pharmaceutical options. What's more, since it is very easy to spread, you shouldn't be the only one with the lindane or limite. Right. All of your family members do the same treatment.

Yeah. Your bedding should be doused in gasoline and set on fire. No, not true. At the very least, it has to be washed on the hottest setting. Yeah, sanitized. We have a sanitized setting that we use quite a bit at our house. Oh, yeah? No, well, not for scabies.

It kills anything. We have animals, you know. They'll pee on something. So we'll wash it on. Gotcha, yeah. Yeah. And you can also take it to a dry cleaner. And when I read that line in this article, I started to think, yeah, that's true.

Dry cleaners actually have fairly dangerous jobs. Like the stuff that gets brought to them. Yeah, I bet. If you're bringing your scabies infected clothes, scabies infested clothes to your dry cleaner, what else is some other guy bringing to them, you know? I know. Wow. Yeah, I never really thought about that.

So you've got your family on lockdown. Everybody's covered in ointment. The bed is on fire in the back. Right. At the very least, it's unsanitized in the laundry. And you realize, you know what? I'm not really the kind to use highly toxic pharmaceutical ointments. Right.

What options does a person like me have? Josh, there are a couple of options. There is something called the neem tree native to India and extract. It's a paste made from extract from that tree. And in studies, and this isn't just a little, you know, all shucks home remedy. They actually have done studies and found that it's 97% effective. Yeah. And it's not toxic.

So that's a good option. Yeah. A little closer to home tea tree oil. Yeah. Well, that's the one that we have that in our house. We use it a lot. That's a great anti-fungal, antibiotic, antibacterial. It's good for a lot of stuff.

Right. But if you're going to use it in some sort of ointment, you want to dilute, dilute, dilute as adherents of Dr. Braun are familiar with because it will burn your skin. Yeah. You want to be real careful with that. Actually, the stuff we use, I didn't think was too diluted. It's strong. Right.

You want to dilute it yourself. Well, we don't. Do you rub it on your skin like in large portions? Not large portions. Like I'll have like a pimple and Emily will put like some tea tree on it and try it out or something. So just like a little dab will do you, as they say. You can also use sulfur. Yeah, I saw that sulfur ointment.

That's good for treating kids. If you don't want to slather your kids in the toxic chemicals. Another study found that the sulfur ointment was just as effective in treating children with scabies as the prescribed ointments. Right. So it does work, but yeah, most of the other folk remedies out there aren't going to do anything but alleviate itching. Right.

Well, which is good though. Oh, yeah. You want that too. But you also want to get rid of the scabies infestation. Yeah. So Chuck. Josh. True or false?

Scabies strikes all races indiscriminately. True. False. Really? For some reason that no one knows yet. African Americans are not nearly susceptible to scabies as everybody else. Well, good for them. Isn't that cool?

Uh-huh. So that's one less thing to worry about. Well, that's good. Chuck. True or false? Chiggers and scabies are the same thing. False. That's right.

Chiggers are different, but they also, well no, they don't burrow under the skin. That is a falsehood. People think they do. They actually feed on top of the skin, but they do dig into the skin, inject you with something to kill your tissue. A necrotic enzyme. A necrotic enzyme. They go bleh.

Yeah, basically. They vomit that on your skin to kill the tissue and then they feed on that tissue. Right. And I've had everyone said chiggers if you've been like to the beach. I don't know that I have before. Yeah, you probably have. If you've been like camping in the woods, you probably had chiggers. Yeah.

Well, they got a bitching feeding process. Yeah, it's gross. Yeah. And they itch like crazy too. How many people out there are scratching right now? Did you notice that when you were reading the article, did you itch a little bit? I'm itching right now. Yeah.

It's like the contagious yawning one. Right. Yeah. Contagious itching. And then Chuck. True or false? False. Right.

Good going, man. Did you have one? Yeah. Scabies means you're a dirty person. Oh, false. Yeah. Of course not. OK.

Does it mean you're promiscuous? No, Mitch. Although they do point out that intercourse is a common way because that means prolonged physical contact. Well put, Chuck. Yes. Very tidy. Thank you. Also, it means in a lot of cases, if you're not just some jerk, that you are sharing the bed together too.

And bedding, as we've seen, is one way that you can get scabies. And maybe sharing a towel. Maybe so if it's like a sexy next morning as well. Or if you're a very clean person afterward. So that's scabies, I guess, right? Yeah. You got anything else? Mitch, when was this?

He's going to murder me, by the way, for this. Was this recently? No, it was a while ago. And he's all good. Yeah, he's fine now. Did he get a scape aside? I'm sure he did. He's a clean guy.

Right, right. He's not dirty in any other way either, as far as I know. And yeah, he's... Does he know where he caught it? No, he won't admit to knowing where he caught it, at least, yeah. We're going to get emails from people that are going to say, you know what? I had scabies too. I had scabies, and don't tell anyone.

I hope Chuck, through this, we've gotten the point across that if you've had scabies, don't be ashamed. If you know somebody who's had scabies, it's not that big of a deal. Go see a doctor, because that's the one reason it can get worse, is because you're so ashamed, you'll try to, like, knock it out at home, without going to get the scape aside, so just suck it up. Doctors have seen it all. They definitely have one in a million shot, Doc. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Well, if you have more questions about scabies, or you want to see a truly, truly cool picture, type in scabies in the handysearchbar at howstuffworks.com. Since I just said that, everybody, you know it means it's time for listener mail. Yes, it is, Josh. And before I read this, I do want to say quickly, so the emails will stop. We have been schooled, and we know now that Amish people love their Walmart. Yeah, everybody knows that. We didn't know that.

Apparently, in theory... Chuck, there's no Amish in Georgia. In theory, the Amish want to support the mom and pop, that is, within their mindset. But apparently, they dig the Walmart, because hundreds of people have written in. And apparently, in Lancaster, we've also were corrected on how to pronounce that, they have buggy sheds at the Walmart, in the shade where they can tie up their buggies. Really? And so the horses can relax.

That's nice for the horses. And they said that they're in there with the digital cameras, looking at them. Have you seen the moose playing in the sprinkler? Is that code for something? No, it's so cute. Go on YouTube and type, baby moose playing in sprinkler or something like that. I'll have to see that. Somebody in the backyard just has their sprinkler out and these two baby moose are running through.

It's really cute. It's crazy. All right, on the listener mail, this is from Stephanie in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Yeah, not Ottawa, Canada. Hi, Josh and Chuck and Jerry. I'm a regular listener of your awesome podcast and I just finished listening to the podcast on Braille. I am totally blind and have been using Braille since the age of four. Awesome.

I thought you made a lot of good points and asked some really interesting questions. To answer one of those questions, Braille you generally see in public places, that is bathrooms, ATM machines, et cetera, is contracted or Grade 2 Braille, at least here it is in Canada. In English Braille, there are no contractions for numbers, so they could be read by a user of any system. Despite the fact that Grade 2 Braille is more commonly seen, I think it is good to begin with Grade 1 Braille, especially for children, as it ensures that they will have the ability to spell later on. When using contracted Braille, you don't spell out words full-length, and so wouldn't learn how they were spelled if it weren't for Grade 1 Braille.

Another thing I thought was interesting was the lack of Braille on the currency in the U.S. Here in Canada, there is actually a Braille system on the currency. We don't have the numbers, but a different number of full Braille cells on each bill. So for example, the five has one full cell, the ten has two, et cetera. I've noticed, however, that despite the effort, the Braille eventually becomes fated and unreadable. So Braille currency, it's a good idea in theory, but it only works in the short term, and blind people are back to folding bills before too long. So thanks for the interesting insight. I look forward to listening to more.

And that's from Stephanie. Thanks, Stephanie. An insight from my blind person. Yeah, and thanks for weighing in on the Grade 1 or 2 or both debate. Absolutely. If you have an exciting email for us about anything at all, I can't think of anything right now, right, Chuck? Can you? Anything itchy.

Ooh, that's a good one. If you have an email for us about anything itchy, why don't you wrap it up and shoot it over to Stuff Podcast at HowStuffWorks.com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit HowStuffWorks.com. Want more HowStuffWorks? Check out our blogs on the HowStuffWorks.com homepage. To receive 20% off your tour, that's promo code HEART20 through January 30th. Visit gate1travel.com for more information or to book your tour. That's gate the number one travel.com.

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