There is a boom in cases of scabies in Italy, an itchy and very contagious disease: “It’s the fault of the many trips abroad and the resistance to treatment”

There is a boom in cases of scabies, an itchy and very contagious disease caused by the Sarcoptes scabiei homini’ mite, a parasite that completes its entire life cycle in the human epidermis and survives for a few days outside of it. It is a disease spread throughout the world and – it is important to clarify – without ethnic differences […]

It’s boom of cases of scabies, an itchy and very contagious disease caused by the Sarcoptes scabiei homini’ mite, a parasite that completes its entire life cycle in the human epidermis and survives for a few days outside of it. It is a disease spread throughout the world and – it is important to clarify – without differences in ethnicity or social class. In the last two years there has been a 30% increase in cases at the IRCCS, Meyer Hospital in Florence, where a new therapy was developed, taking up a sulfur-based remedy from the past. Currently, approximately 2/3 new cases have been recorded in the hospital facility, for a total of more than 100 new diagnoses per year.

More cases for drug resistance
Transmission occurs through close contact and for this reason it spreads very easily within families and community environments. “I would like to underline that we have always had cases of scabies,” he explains to FattoQuotidiano.it doctor Cesare Filippeschi, Meyer dermatologist. “The increase in cases it is due to the resumption of international travel after Covid and others an increase in resistance to traditionally used drugs to treat scabies: permethrin and, in recent years, oral ivermectin”,

From the past to the future
“As regards permethrin, initially even a night of treatment with this cream was enough to cure scabies,” continues the expert. “In the following years, however, it became necessary to increase the number of applications until we found resistance to therapy with this molecule, not only in Italy, but also in other countries. We then switched to a treatment with permethrin cream combined with oral ivermectin. But in the last two-three years there has been a high number of relapses. At this point we had the intuition to resort to other, older treatments. Comparing myself with the specialists of the Bambin Gesù hospital in Rome, we thought of one sulfur therapy which was used in the past, but which caused severe skin irritation over time. To overcome this undesirable effect, we have developed a sulfur preparation at 17% concentration based on an emollient cream that allows the sulfur to act without irritating the skin. Furthermore, instead of applying it every evening, this ointment is used, leaving it on the affected area for 3 days, without washing, and then removing it and reapplying it after 7 days”. The preliminary results are very encouraging and have just been published in a letter to the editor in the International Journal of Dermatology. The study involved 22 patients, “but those actually treated successfully with the new therapy are many more and at Meyer this has become the treatment of choice for scabiesa”, continues Filippeschi. “A treatment that is arousing interest from other national and international treatment centers, and which once again reminds us that sometimes by rediscovering ‘old’ molecules it is possible to develop effective therapies: we think that from the beginning of last century and up until the 1990s, fumes from burnt sulfur flowers were used to cleanse the rooms of scabies patients!”, underlines the expert.

More effectiveness and less cost
Another fundamental element that makes the sulfur galenic preparation very interesting is “its cost is very low compared to other therapies on the marketoe which are not always loanable. Therefore, a family that has to resort to a remedy against scabies obtains significant savings with this treatment, concludes Filippeschi.