Scabies cream without odor. Scabies mite in humans: symptoms, treatment methods, medications

Scabies is a fairly common skin disease, which, without proper measures, begins to progress rapidly and can cause a number of complications. The causative agent of this disease is various types of parasites, primarily the corresponding type of subcutaneous mite.

This disease has been known to man for a very long time; the first mentions of it that have survived to this day date back to 500 BC. However, people managed to learn about the peculiarities of the course of the disease and the causes of its occurrence much later, when the first microscope was developed, which made it possible to discern microscopic parasites.

Symptoms

Scabies has characteristic symptoms that allow it to be distinguished from other types of dermatological diseases. The main signs of infection with this disease are the following:

The presence of severe and unbearable itching , exacerbation of this symptom usually occurs in the evenings or at night, when subcutaneous mites are most active. The main reason is not bites, but the release of large amounts of waste products by parasites, which cause an extremely acute and difficult to tolerate allergic reaction of the human body.
The presence of characteristic and clearly visible scratching on the affected areas of the skin.
Skin rashes in the form of a pink or red rash; in advanced stages of the disease, they can take on the appearance of a crust covering the skin.

You can also diagnose scabies by looking at the places on the body that are most susceptible to various skin rashes. There are a number of patterns that virtually always remain unchanged:

Regardless of the patient’s gender, the areas between the fingers and their lateral surfaces are primarily affected.
In half of infected men, the genitals and the area around them are affected, as well as the area where the wrist joints are located.
In approximately 20–25% of patients, regardless of gender, the feet and body are affected. In some cases, the rash can spread over the entire surface of the arms and legs.
In some women, the mammary glands are affected.

Symptoms usually appear within the following periods of time after infection:

After 7–10 days, if this is the patient’s first case of this disease. In some cases, up to 1.5 months may pass before the first symptoms appear if subcutaneous mites undergo a long process of adaptation to the new environment into which they find themselves.
After a few hours or one day, if the disease is recurrent or has relapsed due to insufficient treatment measures. However, the likelihood of repeated infection with scabies is not particularly high, since after suffering the disease, a person develops a protective reaction of the body, as a result of which some mites die even without taking any measures.

Choice of drug treatment

What scabies cream can I use? Your doctor should prescribe the drug based on the diagnostic results. The most effective, of course, will be medications, not folk remedies.

All drugs here are used for external use. The purpose of a particular remedy depends on the severity of the disease, the location of the rash areas, and the economic capabilities of the patient. In addition, there are special requirements for medications:

No skin irritation.
Low degree of toxicity.
Impact only on the affected location.
Absence of allergenic components.

Now let’s get acquainted with specific effective ointments for scabies.

Review of ointments

Ointments are mainly used to treat scabies; below are reviews of the most common and effective remedies of this type:

Benzyl benzoate is the most popular drug prescribed to most patients for the treatment of this disease. It is also available in the form of an emulsion concentrate, but ointment is considered the most effective. Usually, only two treatments are enough, and the product is applied not only to the affected areas, but also to the entire body except the face. You can purchase such an ointment in virtually any pharmacy, the price of one tube is 25 grams. is only about 15 rubles.
Permethrin also comes in a variety of forms, but an ointment is used to treat scabies. It is one of the most common remedies against this disease in most Western countries. One package costs about 450 rubles.
Ordinary sulfur ointment is not the most pleasant drug, since it disrupts the processes of sweat secretion, has an unpleasant odor and is absorbed very slowly. However, this remedy consistently shows good results in the treatment of scabies. The cost is about 20 rubles per tube.
Wilkinson's ointment is very similar to sulfur ointment, and therefore has similar advantages and disadvantages. Some people try to avoid this drug because it leaves a greasy residue on clothing. The price of one tube is 20-30 rubles.
Zinc ointment, unlike its sulfur analogue, does not have an unpleasant odor, and the main advantage is its combined effect: the drug helps in the treatment of scabies, and also accelerates the healing process of wounds on the skin. The approximate cost is 30-40 rubles.
Jurax is a lesser known, but still quite effective remedy. Available in the form of a cream, the main active ingredient of which is crotamiton. The drug is quite expensive, a tube with a volume of 20 g. costs about 1800 rubles.
Crotamiton ointment is a complete analogue of Jurax, is in the same price category and has a similar composition.
Medifox , produced in the form of a cream, is a drug that contains permethrin. Thanks to this component, subcutaneous mites are destroyed and the main symptoms of the disease are eliminated. The approximate price of one tube is 130 rubles.
Spregal is available in the form of an aerosol rather than an ointment, but this French drug is also very often used to treat scabies, since it can act not only on subcutaneous mites, but also on their eggs. The cost of one can is about 850 rubles.
If Spregal is not available in pharmacies, it can be replaced with the drug A-Par , which is its analogue. The approximate price is 600 rubles.

A-Par against scabies mites

An excellent disinfectant, which is usually used to treat clothing, if the material allows it. When applying the drug to the skin, you must first take a bath and dry your body thoroughly so that no water remains on the skin. Then, from a distance of 50 cm, you need to slightly tilt the container and spray the spray onto the skin. Traces and stains from the drug do not remain on clothes.

Before using A-Par, you must take a bath and dry your body completely.

The medicine should remain on the skin for at least 20 hours, then you can take a shower and change your bed linen. The shower should be slightly cool and without the addition of soapy substances, in order to prevent possible irritation of the skin due to scratching and increased itching caused by hot water.

Do not use this medicine on the face to prevent bronchospasm. In certain situations, after using A-Par, patients report such a side effect as a slight burning sensation. As a rule, it goes away very quickly and does not cause significant discomfort. Therapy using this spray can last for 5 days, the exact duration can only be determined by a doctor.

When spraying this composition onto surrounding objects, you must press the dispenser for at least 20 seconds. During this time, approximately 1 square meter can be disinfected. m. premises. One bottle is enough for an area of 10 square meters. m.

After use, the room must be ventilated and patients must leave the apartment to avoid inhaling toxic fumes. Spray treated items can only be used after 2-3 hours. They are safe, but this is the amount of time it takes for the ticks to die.

After treating items with A-Par spray, you should wait 2-3 hours before using the treated items

Despite the fact that the drug has no significant contraindications, it is not recommended for pregnant women to use it, since it is impossible to predict the body's reaction during this period. Also, the effect of the active component of the A-Para aerosol on the fetus and its subsequent development has not been fully studied.

Review of ointments for children

To treat scabies in children, the same drugs are used as for adults, but the differences may lie in the specifics of their use.

The following are examples of products that are suitable for treating children, as well as the age at which they can be used:

Benzyl benzoate is allowed for the treatment of children from the second month of life.
Spregal is also used for children from two months of age.
Permethrin and drugs based on it are used after the first year of life.
sulfur ointment no earlier than three years of age.

How is treatment prescribed?

How to treat scabies in humans? Medicines are prescribed only by a doctor after diagnosis. The main direction of therapy here is the destruction of both the parasite itself and its metabolic products. Antiparasitic drugs for scabies are mainly used for external use. These are all kinds of ointments, sprays, creams, balms, etc.

As for systemic medications, they can only be prescribed if the patient complains of severe pain and unbearable itching.

Causes and routes of infection

Scabies infection occurs in various ways, the most common ways of spreading this disease are:

Household contacts, primarily infection can occur when using clothes or bedding of a sick person if they have not been treated properly.
Having sexual contact with an infected person. However, condoms or other similar products are not able to provide any protection, since they do not prevent skin contact.
A child is at risk of becoming infected when using toys that have been touched by sick children.
There are often cases of transmission of the disease from a sick child to parents if he sleeps in the same bed with them.

At the same time, only female parasites can provoke scabies. Their lifespan is only a month, but given the fact that they are capable of laying several thousand eggs per day, populations of subcutaneous mites tend to rapidly increase in the number of individuals.

Making ointment for scabies at home

Sometimes it is not at all necessary to purchase store-bought medications to treat scabies, since there are a number of recipes for preparing healing ointments at home. One of these options is discussed step by step below:

Mix together the main ingredients, which are hunting gunpowder and fairly thick sour cream, the proportions are 1 to 3.
It is necessary to mix the components thoroughly until they turn into a homogeneous mass.
Wrap the container with the mixture in a warm blanket to maintain the temperature for a long time.
Let the product sit for several hours, and it is recommended to re-mix it every 20 minutes.
Only areas of the body that have been affected by the disease are treated with the prepared ointment.
Application is carried out using cotton napkins, which cover the treated areas.
It is necessary to wait until the product is completely absorbed into the skin, after which the treatment areas must be rinsed with clean warm water. It is recommended to use tar soap as an additional measure.

Features of the treatment of scabies in adults and children

If several people with scabies are identified in one family, treatment with a scabies spray is carried out on all family members at the same time to avoid infecting other people.

Anti-scabies in the form of ointments, sprays and solutions for children are rubbed into the entire skin, including the scalp. Adults are allowed to rub only on open areas of the body.

Application of drugs should be done only by hand, without the use of cotton pads, tampons or gauze applications. Thanks to intensive manual application, it is possible to achieve the best possible penetration of the drug into the deep layers of the skin, including subsequent blockage of the scabies ducts.

All treatment with anti-scabies sprays is carried out before bedtime, in the evening, since the activation of the life activity of the scabies mite is typical at sunset.

The areas most affected by scabies are the areas with the thinnest skin. In children under 5 years of age, the localization of the rash is slightly different: the feet and palms, the inside of the buttocks, the scalp and the face area are most often affected.

The specific itching characteristic of scabies is caused by an allergic response of the body to the waste products of the scabies mite.

Possible complications

If you do not take any timely measures to treat scabies, there is a high risk of the following complications:

Extensive lesions of the skin, leading to the introduction of various infections, which is why purulent inflammatory processes begin.
Parallel development of other dermatological diseases or microbial eczema, most often this complication occurs due to an incorrectly selected course of treatment.
The formation of dense nodes of a fairly large size, which are the result of local complications in places with scabies. Very often, the genitals of patients are susceptible to this, regardless of gender; the visual residual effect can persist for several months after complete recovery.
Temporary persistence of itching after completion of the treatment process and complete recovery. Experts have never established the exact causes of this complication; most often it is explained by the residual effect of the most acute form of an allergic reaction to the waste products of parasites or by the side effects of pharmacological drugs that were used to treat the disease.

What is scabies

Scabies is a dermatological disease caused by the scabies mite (itch). Penetrating under the skin, the female lays eggs there and forms passages in the subcutaneous layer. The areas where the mite is located are very itchy.

Usually the disease spreads to the phalanges of the fingers, armpits, and skin folds. Carrying out an external examination of the skin, you can easily see the progress of the itching.

The symptoms of the disease are most pronounced at night, which causes problems with sleep.

If the disease is ignored, then without treatment a serious inflammatory process develops with blood poisoning, which ultimately leads to serious complications.

The spread of ticks occurs through:

bed sheets;
household items;
clothes;
handshakes;
any touch of a healthy and infected person.

Prevention of infection

Since scabies is an extremely contagious disease, it is recommended to take certain measures to minimize the risk of infection and reduce the likelihood of a local epidemic spreading. The basic rules of prevention include:

If scabies is detected in one person, the entire team with whom he is in close communication and frequent contact should be subjected to medical examination.
Treatment of all infected people in contact with each other should be carried out simultaneously.
The patient should remain in quarantine, minimizing direct contact with family members. He should be provided with a separate sleeping place and individual personal hygiene products, as well as bed linen.
The belongings of infected people must be subjected to high-quality disinfection. For these purposes, soaking them for 10 minutes in a basin of water is suitable, to which regular washing powder and a solution prepared on the basis of baking soda are added. If it is impossible to carry out such a procedure, things are treated with special disinfectants.
Other preventive measures for clothing items include washing at the maximum permissible temperatures, thoroughly ironing with a hot iron, and airing outside for a week.
Regular wet cleaning of the room where the patient is kept. For treatment, you can use a soda solution; special attention will need to be paid to door handles and other objects that the patient often touches with his bare hands.
Refusal of sexual contacts with dubious and unfamiliar people.
Compliance with personal hygiene rules and maintaining sanitary standards in residential premises.

An infected person must undergo a full course of treatment under the supervision of a qualified specialist, since visual elimination of symptoms is not evidence of recovery, in which case the person may continue to infect people around him and not suspect it.

Therapy using folk remedies

Scabies is one of the oldest diseases, so over the years people have discovered many treatment methods using different foods and herbs. Most of the ingredients may now be in the refrigerator.

One of these methods is treatment with dairy products. The recipe receives positive reviews; it contains milk or kefir with the addition of black powder; it can be obtained from hunters.

The ratio is one to three, that is, 3 tablespoons of kefir to one spoon of gunpowder. This mixture should be placed in a warm place and stirred regularly for a couple of hours. Then, when the mixture is ready, apply to the areas where the rash has formed and preferably tie it with gauze overnight.

The next morning, wash and repeat the procedure. After three procedures there will be a noticeable improvement.

To prepare the following ointment you will need elecampane root, sulfur, pork lard and birch tar. Initially, finely chop the root, heat the pork lard and add the root before the mixture boils. Then boil this mixture for another couple of minutes and reduce the heat, keep it on this heat for 15 minutes.

Strain the warm mixture through cheesecloth and let it brew, then add the remaining ingredients to the semi-finished mixture and pour into a jar, in which you need to stir regularly. When a homogeneous mass is formed, it can be used.

It is necessary to spread it on the areas affected by parasitic mites. Repeat this procedure 3 times a day for a couple of hours.

A simple folk method is to use laundry soap. To prepare a special anti-scabies soap, you need laundry soap, garlic and onions. You need to rub a piece of laundry soap on a grater, heat the shavings over a fire until a viscous mass is formed, to which chopped garlic and onions are added.

Reviews

Below are reviews from people who have had scabies and are now sharing their opinions on the treatment of this disease using various ointments:

Alexander: “One of the residents of our apartment building suffers from severe alcohol addiction and lives in unsanitary conditions. Because of this, he once fell ill with scabies, and many neighbors, including me, became infected from him. The disease is extremely unpleasant, according to the doctor’s instructions, I was treated with Benzyl benzoate, I had to smear myself with it several times a day, and then have difficulty washing off the old layers of the product. The torment lasted about a week and a half, but the disease was not fatal, then I remembered it like a bad dream.”
Roman: “About 15 years ago, not only I, but my whole family suffered from scabies. No one had any dubious contacts, they did not communicate with the sick, the apartment was kept clean, so the reason remained unknown. Naturally, we immediately consulted a doctor, who recommended sulfur ointment. The remedy was effective, but the treatment process itself was long and unpleasant, I really hope that I will never encounter this problem again in my life.”
Sergei: “I never thought that I would ever get over scabies, but, as it turned out, no one is immune from it. I work as a security guard at a logistics center, the shifts are several days and nights at once, and everyone sleeps on the same cots, only the bed linen is changed. Apparently, this is how I, as well as another colleague of mine, became infected. I contacted the KVD, where I was diagnosed with an allergy and prescribed an expensive drug, which did not help, because they were treating me for the wrong thing. When my arms and legs began to become covered with large blisters and I was hospitalized, scabies was diagnosed, although it was far from at the initial stage. As a result, he was successfully cured with the help of treatment with Benzyl benzoate, but this process was not easy: he overcame scabies only after three weeks, and it took another year to get rid of the consequences. I’m already silent about how many headaches there were with my wife’s prophylaxis, as well as the examination of all my colleagues at work.”
Anastasia: “The child contracted scabies in kindergarten, and I got it from him, because I didn’t notice his first symptoms in a timely manner. I’m so glad that everything went without complications for my daughter, because the treatment process took a lot of energy from me. On the advice of a doctor friend, I used sulfur ointment, and this is a very unpleasant remedy both in smell and in the feel of it. She had to treat the affected areas for more than a week until the disease finally subsided.”
Nikolai: “I work on a rotational basis, sometimes the schedule is such that I have to live on site for several months, and the conditions are often simply terrible. The exchange of various non-serious infections is common, but one day there was a whole scabies epidemic. Everything was complicated by the fact that the diagnosis was made too late, when most of the colleagues were already actively itching. Almost fifty people had to be examined after this! In this situation, the only good thing is that such a schedule excluded contacts with family at the time of illness. Everyone turned to different specialists and they also recommended different remedies. I was recommended Wilkinson’s ointment, the product helped, no complications or side effects were observed.”