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The Scabies Experiment

Hi and welcome to my Scabies Experiment. I've had this horrible itch for over 2 years now. Until about a week ago I assumed the cause was either bacteria or fungal and so I've been trying to self treat with antibacterial(containing Polymyxin B Sulfate, Bacitracin Zinc and Neomycin Sulfate) and anti-fungal(Clotrimazole and Terbinafine Hydrochloride) creams along with Hydrogen Peroxide and Isopropyl Alcohol. . The treatements seemed to keep things in check but never cured the problem.

I now believe that I have Scabies. I know I should see a doctor but what can I say? I don't like doctors and besides I don't even know where to begin to try to figure out how to see a doctor with my health care.

Itchy raised flesh colored spots about 7mm would cluster around the forearms, inner thigh and groin. The spots also seemed to spread to other areas including the areas around the knees and ankles if I scratched an infected area and then scratched another area. The itching seemed to intensify during the evening. Upon intensive scratching the spots would rupture and the area around the spot would become inflamed.

On occasion the spots would be so dense that they would cause the an area of skin to scab over. And then mysteriously that area would heal over and the itching would stop. According to the following article the clearing is due inflammatory reaction which made the environment adverse for the mites. The reference is under Human Itch Mite - Symptoms of Infestation. I like to think that THEY itched to death.

So instead of seeing a doctor, I've decided to self treat for Scabies and maybe learn something and possibly even help someone else going through this.

I might have gone overboard but bought 3 different Scabies treatments and a microscope. First up is Nature's Best Enzyme Scabies Treatment containing "a specially formulated broad spectrum of enzymes derived from innocuous yeast strains." Second is Nix 5% Permethrin Cream. Last is a 1% Lindane Lotion. The plan is to try each treatment for a few weeks until the itching goes away while documenting the treatment the best I can. I'm hoping this little experiment ends with just the first treatment.

Day 1
Unfortunately I've started on the Enzyme treatment before my microscope arrives for me to do a skin scrapping to positively identify the infection. And as usual, I'm not following directions. The directions calls for leaving the solution on for 20 minutes and then rinsing off but to then to reapply to problem areas and then leave on. I've just applied to problem areas and surrounding areas and have just left it on. It seems to have helped with the itching a little. This is strange as there is no reason for this.

The only drawback so far is the smell. This enzyme has a musty yeast smell.

Day 2
I still have minor itching in areas at the edges of my problem areas. My next question is "is this psychological or physiological?" While I can't determine that, I decided I would feel better if I knew this Enzyme actually "works." The package explains that "upon contact, our Enzyme Scabies Treatment begins to prematurely shed and deteriorate the outer shell of scabies." I assume this means that this enzyme attacks the chitin exoskeleton ants also so I decided to test this out. Using a 3 common ants I smeared a light coating on my finger and touched each ant. Ant number died within 2-3 minutes. Ants 2 and 3 took about 7 minutes to die. Each ant got a fairly heavy coating of the enzyme. At least now I know the enzyme can at least kill an insect.

Vistors so far:

Enzyme, Permethrin and Lindane

Left Forearm before treatment.

Left forearm after 1 day of Enzyme treatment.

I'm going to continue on this enzyme treatment for at least a couple of weeks to give it a chance to work. According to the directions 2 applications 24 hours apart should be sufficient but I'm going to apply the enzyme daily for at least several days. My reasoning is that since I'm surely going to miss parts of my body, the mites may not come in contact with the enzyme on the first 2 treatments. Plus if the mites can't survive more than a few day away from a host, any mites that might be in my bedding will either starve or die from exposure to the enzyme when it tries to re-infect me. I'm only doing this because Nature's Best claims the enzyme is "Non-Toxic."

2 ants killed by Enzyme Scabies Treatment

Day 3

My new toy microscope just arrived. I know it isn't a "real" microscope but I've wanted one of these since the first time I saw the older QX3 microscope from Intel. This is a new model with double the resolution and upgraded LED lighting.

Although it is hard to tell from the picture the swelling around the 80% of the bumps have gone down. The skin in the infected areas is very dry and very slightly itchy. Nothing as bad as before. The feeling is more like a sunburn itch than what I was feeling before. I attribute this to all of the open nicks from the scratching 2 days plus ago. I still itch in 1 or 2 areas I know I didn't cover too well with the enzyme. But the good news is that I haven't scratched my left forearm all day.

One of the new areas where I'm now itchy is my right shin/calf. This wasn't a problem area before so I doubt I treated this area and if I did I only using the Enzyme sparingly in this area. I will reapply the treatment to the old problem areas and anywhere else I feel may need it.

Left forearm after 2 days of Enzyme treatment

To the right are some pictures I took with the microscope.

The first picture is a piece of lead from 0.5mm mechanical pencil at 200x magnification for reference. According to Mudra Kumar's article, female Scabies mites are .3 to .5 mm long. It stands to reason that anything I might find is going to roughly this size.

The second picture is from my right shin as that is where it is itching now. This may be nothing more than some fibers but these 2 things are the only things I've found that is close to what I assume I'm supposed to be looking for. This scrapping was done with rubbing alcohol and the edge of a credit card.

The third picture is a scrapping from my left bicep using hydrogen peroxide(hence the bubbles). I'm not sure what the black dot is but I do seem to find these in just about every scrapping I do.

The last picture is of my right forearm at 10x.

0.5 mm Pencil Lead at 200x magnification

Skin scrapping from right leg at 200x

Skin scapping from left bicep at 200x

Right forearm at 10x

Last Updated on: 02/04/05 11:55pm PST

Day 4

I've already made the 1st of what I'm sure will be many mistakes. I showered off the enzyme this morning and didn't reapply. I think I have some new bites on my thigh now. The encouraging news is that my left forearm where the infection has been the worst and consequently where most of the treatment has been concentrated has no new bites. The skin there is incredibly dry and scar tissue has formed. Again the pictures actually make it look worst than it really is. The red in the pictures is really more of a darker shade of flesh then what you see in the pictures. I still get a slight itch on the forearm a few times a day. It's nowhere near as bad before. The feeling is more like slight sun burn itch.

I've started using hydrogen peroxide anywhere I feel a slight itch. I was using the peroxide before I started on the enyme and found that it would help keep the itching from spreading too badly. The other reason I'm doing this is that I'm starting to run low on the enzyme treatment and am trying to stretch it out. I will reapply the enzyme to problem areas tonight.

Left forearm after 3 days of enzyme treatment

Left elbow after 3 days of enzyme treatment

Left thigh