"Clothes, toothbrushes, hairbrushes, a teddy Although it should be two teddies, she re-evaluates, quickly. I can hear her trying to quell her panic. A diehard survivalist preparing for catastrophe? Actually, a beleaguered 44-year-old mother recovering from scabies an itchy rash caused by microscopic mites that burrow under human skin. Far-fetched as it sounds, emergency evacuation is exactly what she, her partner and children (six and four) resorted to in November in a desperate bid to beat the bugs."
"They were washing clothes and bedding after every use, as well as steaming mattresses, duvets and sofas, churning through hundreds of disposable gloves, boiling the kids' crocs, and quarantining anything else they could think of in bin bags. When all those measures failed, it was time for the nuclear option: they took the kids out of school for a week and rented a caravan near their home in south-west England."
"It was hell, she says. My mental health was in the pan, the scratching, the itching drives you insane, and the cleaning and laundry, and you feel you can't talk to anybody She apologises, fearing she might sound crazed. It affected our lives so horrendously, I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy."
A family experienced scabies beginning in September, with symptoms spreading to children and prompting two rounds of topical treatment. Intensive decontamination followed, including washing and steaming clothing, bedding and furniture, using disposable gloves, boiling footwear and quarantining items. When these measures failed to halt reinfestation, the family temporarily relocated to a rented caravan and repeated treatments. The infestation produced relentless itching, disrupted mental health, overwhelming cleaning burdens and social isolation. Emergency evacuation and extreme precautions were used as a last resort to interrupt transmission and protect the children.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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