Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T23:03:38.592Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Brief Report: An Outbreak of Scabies Among Employees in a Hospital-associated Commercial Laundry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Michelle C. Thomas ,
Dale H. Giedinghagen  and
Gerald L. Hoff
Michelle C. Thomas*
Affiliation:
Division of Communicable Disease Control, Kansas City, Missouri Health Department
Dale H. Giedinghagen
Affiliation:
Division of Communicable Disease Control, Kansas City, Missouri Health Department
Gerald L. Hoff
Affiliation:
Division of Communicable Disease Control, Kansas City, Missouri Health Department
*
Kansas City, Missouri Health Department, 1423 E. Linwood, Kansas City, MO 64109
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The acquisition of scabies in either the community or the health care setting is not uncommon, although it is infrequently documented. In Missouri, individual cases of scabies infestation are not reportable, but outbreak notification is required. Outside of the nursing home environment, where three to six outbreaks of scabies per year require assistance from the nosocomial disease subprogram of the Kansas City Health Department, only two other outbreaks have been recorded in the community since August 1977. One involved a school with 93 cases and the other a commercial laundry, which is reported here. The latter outbreak illustrates the difficulty encountered when attempting to classify an outbreak as either nosocomially acquired or community-acquired.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 8 , Issue 10 , October 1987 , pp. 427 - 429
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 1987

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Lerche, NW, Currier, RW, Juranek, DD, et al: Atypical crusted “Norwegian” scabies: Report of nosocomial transmission in a community hospital and an approach to control. Cutis 1983;31:637–684.Google Scholar
2. Sherertz, RJ, Hampton, AL, Infection control aspects of hospital employee health, in Wenzel, RP (ed): Prevention and Control of Nosocomial Infections. Baltimore, William & Wilkins, 1987, p 189.Google Scholar
3. Tucker, JA, Hoff, GL, Biery, RM, Nosocomial disease and Kansas City, Missouri, Health Department. Am J Infect Control 1982;10:58A–60A.Google ScholarPubMed
4. Foutes, JA, Spencer, S, Tucker, J, et al: Policy decisions in scabies control. J School Health 1981;51:673–675.Google Scholar
5. Burkhart, CG, Scabies: An epidemiological reassessment. Ann Intern Med 1983;98:498–503.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
6. Poindexter, HA, Scabies. J Natl Med Assoc 1978;70:525–526.Google ScholarPubMed
7. McRae, ME, Scabies. Cutis 1977;20:90–92.Google Scholar
8. Felman, YM, Nikitas, JA, Sexually transmitted diseases: Scabies. Cutis 1984;33:266–276.Google Scholar
9. Samsinak, K, Vobrazkova, E, Malis, L, et al: To the possible spread of scabies through bed linen. Folia Parasitologica 1974;21:89–91.Google Scholar
10. Busvine, JR, Insects and Hygiene, ed 2. London, Athlone Press, 1966.Google Scholar
11. Carslaw, RW, Dobson, RM, Hood, AJK, et al: Mites in the environment of cases of Norwegian scabies. Br J Dermatol 1975;92:333–337.Google Scholar
12. Engel, HO, Occupational scabies [Letter]. Br Med J 1977;642.Google Scholar