Experience of an Epidemic Outbreak Control of Scabies Among Prisoners in Nakornpathom Province. Do Amphetamine Prisoners Affect as a Reservoir of Scabies in Thai?

Abstract

A study of epidemic outbreak control of 424 scabies prisoners from 6 prisons in police stations at

Nakhonpathom province during November-December 2000. The data were analyzed and five treatment regimens were studied. As being expected, there was an ideal condition for scabies outbreak in the prisons e.g. overcrowding, poor personal hygiene, and malnourishment. Most prisoners were found guilty of amphetamine consumers/sellers (83.3/16.7%). They played an important role in spreading scabies through Thai community. Prevalence of scabies in Thai community may be predicted by amphetamine problem in Thailand. It was found that only the number of lesions in non-crowded prisons and frequency of taking a bath (daily vs. not daily) in crowded prisons showed significant correlation to response of treatment. This study verified the beneficial effect of all given treatment regimens. We concluded that 25% benzyl benzoate lotion applied for 3 consecutive days is a reasonable economic approach for mass treatment if the application of scabicide is under strict supervision protocol. A clear national policy and implementation is necessary for prevention of the transmission of scabies between prison and community. Finally, we have suggested several means to combat scabies outbreak in prisons and proposed an instruction for treatment scabies among prisoners.