Scabies: a major health problem among school children in Egypt

ABSTRACT

To identify the epidemic situation of scabies among primary school children and the effect of scabies infection on school attendance of the diseased pupils in an urban area of Egypt, El Mahalla El Kubra city was chosen as a highly populated one. Six schools were chosen randomly form the three districts of the city and the health records over 5 schoalistic years were analysed. Also, health visitors and mothers of diseased pupils were interviewed. The study confirmed the presence of a new epidemic of scabies. there was progessive increase in the incidence of scabies. It rose during the study period more than two folds and ranked at the top of all reported infectious diseases at the studied schools Moreover, scabies became one of the important diseases, that greatly disturb the school attendance of the affected pupils. In the last schoalistic year [1993 1994],2.7% of scabietic pupils were absent more than one month. A comperhensive program for prevention and control of scabies at the community level is recommended and further researches to investigate the causes of resistant scabies are needed