Scabies; safety of permethrin and ivermectin

ABSTRACT

Scabies is a common health problem worldwide. Most treatment modalities available are topical. Among them 5% Permethrin is the most effective scabicide with few side effects. Limiting factors are its high cost, cumbersome application and emerging resistance. Ivermectin is the only oral scabicide available. It is effective, inexpensive and easy to use drug with no known drug interactions and limited side effects. To compare the safety of topical Permethrin and oral Ivermectin in treatment of scabies. Quasiexperimental study. Setting: Department of dermatology Jinnah Hospital, Lahore. Subjects: 120 patients were enrolled and were randomly divided in 2 groups of 60 each.-12-02-07 to 31-01-08. Non funded study [As ivermectin was not available in Pakistan during the study period, it was imported from India as tablet Ivecop 12 mg]. Topical Permethrin and oral Ivermectin were used in groups A and B respectively. Patients were examined and certain investigations were carried out before dug administration, and at day 7 and day 14 to evaluate the safety of both drugs on the basis of appearing of side effects and change in baseline investigations. In both groups, equal number of patients experienced side effects [n=15]. In group A, side effects observed were burning [n=8], contact dermatitis [n=4] and stinging [n=3]. In group B, we observed muscular pain [n=5], nausea [n=5], headache [n=2] and others [n=3]. Significant rise of hepatic enzymes was noticed in only 1 patient of group B which improved on next follow up. We found no statistically significant difference regarding safety of use between permethrin and ivermectin