How do you get scabies?


Skin to skin contact
Scabies are transmitted primarily through skin to skin contact. Currently, the minimum length of skin to skin contact required to catch scabies is unknown. Mites burrow into the skin and reproduce.

Skin to skin contact: how long does it take? Though this question is unanswered by science so far, I'll take a stab at it and say it varies; catching scabies like a game of chance, with the odds stacked against you. I am quite certain the it's possible to have very brief - even instantaneous - contact with somebody who has scabies, and catch it. This contradicts much of the scabies information on the net, which states that it takes 10 minutes of contact for scabies to transfer from one human to another. I imagine the actually length of time and probability of transmission depends on a number of factors.

One of the factors is how many scabies a person actually has on them - this is said to be normally in the range of 12 to 25 mites (I think it's probably higher), but can be in the millions in people with compromised immune systems. The more scabies a person has on them, the more likely transmission will occur. Scabies are removed by washing (but not eliminated), so the more a person washes, the less likely they are to transmit them.

There are other ways transmissibility might be affected; imagine yourself as a scabies mite, not with much individual intelligence, but tutored by countless years of evolution's trial and error. When are the best times for you to come up from your burrow under the skin and attempt a transfer on to a new host? The ideal time, I would think, is when your current host is sweating. You are a moisture loving creature, so sweat protects me; furthermore, since sweat, a liquid readily comes of on to another host's skin, it might actually aid you in the mechanical transfer to another host by allowing you to transfer within a drop of sweat. Finally, if you have the ability to sense day and night, then night, when your host animal tends to have the most skin contact with other hosts, would be the best time for you to venture forth. Interestingly, scabies tends to itch more at night. Finally, add together sweating and nighttime, and you get the most ideal situation for transfer: you guessed it - sex!