Scabies rife at Auckland preschools, with 56% of surveyed children affected

Scabies are rife at some Auckland preschools – and are often misdiagnosed, a new report has found.

Read this story in te reo Māori and English here / Pānuitia tēnei i te reo Māori me te reo Pākehā ki konei.

The University of Auckland research, published in the New Zealand Medical Journal on Friday, found 56% of surveyed children between 3 and 5 years old had skin lesions consistent with scabies.

The eight researchers looked at three preschools in low socioeconomic areas of south Auckland.

Māori and Pasifika children were also found to be at higher risk, with 60% of clinical cases of scabies in the study diagnosed in Pasifika children and 40% coming from Māori tamariki.

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“The findings of a high prevalence of scabies in these childcare centres whose parents identify as either Pacific or Māori is consistent with the epidemiology of scabies in other areas of the Pacific,” the research said.

“Samoa, an island nation with close ties to Auckland, has recently undertaken a survey of scabies and skin disease and returned a prevalence of scabies of 14.4%.”

The study said several parents of the children with scabies surveyed had visited a doctor and told they had something else.

“One of the things that [has] been identified is that doctors misdiagnose scabies. Part of the effort in this study is trying to improve diagnosis in the community,” researcher Dr Simon Thornley said.

“Australian research points to normalisation of scabies among the medical community. Doctors working in prevalent areas may not see scabies sores as highly unusual.”

Thornley said he hoped the research would help health workers take more action against scabies with better treatment efforts and increased awareness of misdiagnoses.

“Improved treatments could be made possible. If you’re lucky, you could get permethrin cream.”

However, Thornley pointed to ivermectin as another effective treatment for scabies in children.

Ivermectin is effective to use for the treatment of human scabies, according to Medsafe – but only after prior treatment has failed.

Patients are urged to follow health professionals’ directions when taking the medicine.

The last investigation into scabies took place in the late 1970s. It found 18% of Pasifika high schoolers surveyed had scabies.

That figure was 10% for Māori high school students and 2% of New Zealand European students.

Scabies is a skin infection caused by mites that burrow under the skin, causing an irritable rash.

In children the infection often causes a rash all over the body, according to the Ministry of Health.

Transmission occurs through skin-to-skin contact, as well as shared items such as clothing and blankets.

There is also growing evidence it is associated with bacterial skin infections such as school sores and can lead to serious complications such as rheumatic fever and kidney disease.

The study was funded by the government through the Health Research Council.