Health services still struggling to get on top of scabies outbreak
The GGD health services are still struggling to get the current scabies outbreak under control. The number of cases has been rising for weeks and is already twice as high as the highest point last year, RTL Nieuws reports.
In the Groningen region, the number of scabies diagnoses increased from 36 per 100,000 residents three weeks ago to over 66 per 100,000 last week. In the Amsterdam region, the number of cases rose from 52 to 75 per 100,000. And in the Gooi en Vechtstree, cases jumped from 52 to 85 per 100,000 residents. The national figures have also been rising every week since the end of the summer.
Scabies is caused by the scabies mite burrowing under your skin and causing an extremely itchy rash. The infectious disease is usually transmitted through prolonged physical contact, such as sleeping in the same bed. GPs report a relatively large number of patients in the 15 to 24 age groups, but infection figures are also much higher in the other age groups.
On Wednesday, the public health institute RIVm advocated for a “group-orientated approach” to scabies. That means treating all members of a household and having them all adhere to the cleaning and laundry instructions to get rid of scabies mites.
“A general practitioner or dermatologist often focuses on the treatment of the individual patient, but given the national increase, this approach appears to be insufficiently effective because too little attention is paid to the treatment of contacts,” said the RIVM. Information provision is also essential, especially for young people with many contacts.
