Impaired quality of life in adults and children with scabies from an impoverished community in Brazil.

Background: Scabies is highly prevalent in resource-poor communities in developing countries and is associated with considerable morbidity in this setting. How the parasitic skin disease impairs the quality of life of patients has rarely been investigated.

Methodology: A modified Dermatology Life Quality Index (mDLQI) was developed to assess the quality of life in adults and children with scabies living in an urban slum in Fortaleza, capital of Ceará State, Brazil.

Acute morbidity associated with scabies and other ectoparasitoses rapidly improves after treatment with ivermectin.

In resource-poor settings, scabies is associated with considerable morbidity. Which factors determine morbidity and how rapidly it recedes after specific treatment is not known. Patients with scabies were recruited in three urban slums in Fortaleza, Northeast Brazil.

Comparison of dermoscopy, skin scraping, and the adhesive tape test for the diagnosis of scabies in a resource-poor setting.

Background: Scabies is a parasitic skin disease endemic in resource-poor communities in low-income countries. The best ways to diagnose scabies in this setting have not been investigated.

Objective: To compare the diagnostic properties of dermoscopy, the microscopic examination of a skin scraping, and the adhesive tape test in 125 patients with a presumptive diagnosis of scabies.