After all, no scabies has been diagnosed in one of the Zorg Leuven crèches. This was reported by Alderman for Care and Welfare Bieke Verlinden (Vooruit) on Wednesday afternoon. A toddler who was thought to have contracted the contagious skin infection earlier in the day turned out to have something else.
One toddler was initially confirmed to have scabies. A second case was suspected to be scabies, but had yet to be verified. It now appears that in neither case was it scabies. “There is nothing wrong,” Verlinden summarizes. “Both toddlers turned out to have something different.”
Scabies is a highly contagious skin infection caused by scabies mites. This is a small spider-like parasite that nestles in the top layer of the skin or the stratum corneum. There the animal digs tunnels in the skin in which it lays eggs. This causes itching and red skin.
It is passed on through skin contact, but the scabies mite also survives for about three days on textiles that may have dander on them. You can also become infected through clothing, bed linen, towels and fabric sofas.
In five years, the number of patients with scabies in Flanders has doubled.
