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Scabies Epidemic: Price and Prejudice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Jacyr Pastenak ,
Rosana Richtmann ,
Antonio P.P. Ganme ,
Edwal A.C. Rodrigues ,
Fermina B.M. Silva ,
Maria de Lurdes Hirata  and
Suely Ciosak
Jacyr Pastenak*
Affiliation:
Real e Benemérita Sociedade Portuguesa de Beneficencia, Hospital Sao Joaquim, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Rosana Richtmann
Affiliation:
Real e Benemérita Sociedade Portuguesa de Beneficencia, Hospital Sao Joaquim, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Antonio P.P. Ganme
Affiliation:
Real e Benemérita Sociedade Portuguesa de Beneficencia, Hospital Sao Joaquim, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Edwal A.C. Rodrigues
Affiliation:
Real e Benemérita Sociedade Portuguesa de Beneficencia, Hospital Sao Joaquim, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Fermina B.M. Silva
Affiliation:
Real e Benemérita Sociedade Portuguesa de Beneficencia, Hospital Sao Joaquim, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Maria de Lurdes Hirata
Affiliation:
Real e Benemérita Sociedade Portuguesa de Beneficencia, Hospital Sao Joaquim, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Suely Ciosak
Affiliation:
Real e Benemérita Sociedade Portuguesa de Beneficencia, Hospital Sao Joaquim, Sao Paulo, Brazil
*
Hospital da Real e Benemèrita Sociedade Portuguesa de Beneficencia, Rua Maestro Cardim, 769-01322-001, Sao Paulo, S.P., Brazil
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Abstract

Scabies epidemics are not unusual, and the recommended way of stopping them is by simultaneous treatment of everybody in the facility; this has been known since the last century, when Norwegian scabies was a problem in Norway. When this is not done, scabies epidemics can smolder for months. Scabies should not spread with good infection control measures, but we learned that a good infection control service is not enough. Efforts have to be done to educate everybody in the hospital, including laundry workers, and to improve work conditions.

Type
Readers' Forum
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 15 , Issue 8 , August 1994 , pp. 540 - 542
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 1994

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