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REVIEW article

Front. Trop. Dis
Sec. Neglected Tropical Diseases
Volume 5 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fitd.2024.1429266
This article is part of the Research Topic Clinical Review of Neglected Tropical Diseases View all 5 articles

Scabies: Current knowledge and future directions

Provisionally accepted
Elke Mitchell Elke Mitchell 1,2Miranda Wallace Miranda Wallace 3Justine Marshall Justine Marshall 1Margot J. Whitfeld Margot J. Whitfeld 4Lucia Romani Lucia Romani 1*
  • 1 The Kirby Institute, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Kensington, New South Wales, Australia
  • 2 Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne, Carlton, Victoria, Australia
  • 3 Other, Sydney, Australia
  • 4 Faculty of Medicine, St Vincent’s Hospital, 390 Victoria St, Darlinghurst NSW, Australia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Scabies is a global public health issues, with approximately 455 million new cases worldwide each year. Scabies is a parasitic skin disease caused by infestation with the mite Sarcoptes scabiei var. hominis that can lead to secondary skin infections such as impetigo. In 2017, scabies was added to the World Health Organization's list of neglected tropical diseases renewing calls for effective management and control of the disease. Mass drug administration has emerged as an effective strategy to control scabies, especially in highly endemic settings. In this review, we detail scabies epidemiology and risk factors, clinical characteristics and diagnosis, as well as control options, and future areas for scabies research.

    Keywords: scabies1, sarcoptes scabiei2, impetigo3, neglected tropical diseases4, mass drug administration5, control strategies5

    Received: 07 May 2024; Accepted: 10 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Mitchell, Wallace, Marshall, Whitfeld and Romani. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Lucia Romani, The Kirby Institute, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Kensington, 2052, New South Wales, Australia

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.