Scabies!

[NurseBeans]

I had a parent call me this morning to let me know her child has scabies and she just knows she got it at school. She knows this because no one else in the family has it, and they aren't a touchy feely family. So the prolonged, skin-to-skin contact necessary to transmit scabies has to have happened at school.

What even? She didn't tell me what she wanted me to do about it, and I explained that I can't go around checking everyone for scabies. Not even sure she wanted me to do that.

So my question is, how do you all handle scabies? This is also eerily similar to some recent lice cases (even though the same kids get lice over and over, clearly I am not doing my job to prevent outbreaks, according to these same parents on Facebook).

[MrNurse(x2), ADN]

It isn't in my state. Parents are always on me to communicate what is happening in the school and so last year I sent a letter notifying them of a few flu cases...our DPH got very angry and I was told, in no uncertain terms, that I do not ever send a letter home to parents about any illness unless they (DPH) tell me to. I even printed out a list of what I have to call DPH about.

So my newsletters pretty much say "it's flu season, wash your hands". And you know what? The parents are still unhappy.

School parents suck...

[foggnm]

You could always go do a spot check on the student's closest classmates/friends if possible (call them in to the office). Or even just tell the student's teacher to report any problems with student's in the same class itching/scratching. Of course, also follow your school's policy for dealing with those types of infections.

[momto5RN]

I'm sorry. Sounds like my day except it's the stomach virus. Parent called today and wants to know what I am specifically going to do to stop the spread of the virus. I just don't understand some of these parents...

[djh123]

LOL. That's what I told my hubby--I walk the halls with vials of diseases and parasites and sprinkle them on classroom surfaces to keep myself in a job. Like Tinkerbell, except instead of fairy dust I sprinkle streptococcus.

Ha ha - that's like one of my old jokes, that the American Dental Assoc. invests in Hershey, Mars, Snickers...

[Amethya]

I always emphasize, "I am not a nurse, nor a doctor. But to me it looks like (Blank). I would suggest taking them to a doctor to get it checked out, just to make sure." Sometimes I'm on the dot, but I have not had a complaint of it yet. Sometimes they call and tell me that the doctor said it was this instead of what I said, that's when I clarified, "Well that's good it wasn't that. As I said, I'm not a nurse, so that's why I asked the child to be checked out, just in case." That shuts them up PRETTY quickly. Sometimes it isn't even me that makes the order, the teachers get so paranoid for some small pink-ish eye and they send them to me SO FAST and I almost argued with a teacher because of this. It was a simple allergy, even the mother clarified this with the doctor's visit but she still sends me this kid and I keep explaining her what it is.

[HyzenthlayLPN]

I hope the parents treated the whole family...

[scuba nurse, BSN, MSN, RN]

Ugh, I had a student at the beginning of the year with scabies. I kept calling the parent and sending him home, tellin g her she needed to take him to a doctor and get tx. and he couldn't come to school until it was treated. She sent him everyday to school and I sent him home everyday, this went on for 2 weeks! She told me it was "excema". I told her it was NOT, it was scabies, it was all over this poor kids body and he was itching like a big dog. FINALLY, because we called DCF she takes him to the doc, and guess what?? SCABIES!

No other children in school had it.

[NurseBeans, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

Yeah, I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop because she said no one in the family has it, which brought her to the conclusion she got it here. So she isn't treating anyone else. Not like I expect her to call me and say "sorry I accused the school of spreading scabies, my whole family has it so she must have gotten it at home ha ha ha".

[kidzcare]

Yeah, I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop because she said no one in the family has it, which brought her to the conclusion she got it here. So she isn't treating anyone else. Not like I expect her to call me and say "sorry I accused the school of spreading scabies, my whole family has it so she must have gotten it at home ha ha ha".

How would this work anyway? Isn't treatment a topical on the affected area? I could be wrong since I've never had to personally deal with it

[BeckyESRN]

Since it takes so long for symptoms to show(4-6 weeks), some doctors will recommend treating everyone in the house at the same time; rather than treating the only 1 with symptoms and then having to treat someone else next week and risk re-exposing the perviously treated person.

[NurseBeans, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

I believe it's a topical from neck down.

I had to give out treatment/instruct parents quite a bit in Central America and that's what we had them do. They were all very confused about why we told them to treat everyone when only one kid had it. Pretty sure they didn't actually treat the whole family but you can't win 'em all.

At least there we had a language barrier to blame for poor compliance.

[BunnyBunnyBSNRN, ASN, BSN]

I have a confirmed (MD diagnosed) case of scabies in two students, per policy I sent home class notification letters yesterday - not only to those two classes, but to sibling classes as well d/t family situation.

And.....cue the mass hysteria!

i already have one email in my inbox this morning, and am expecting a flood of phone calls over the next several days. I have prepared myself as best as I can with information from the state DOH and the CDC - anybody have any advice?