Statistics on scabies in recent ten years at the Division of Dermatology, Shizuoka Red Cross Hospital

Abstract

We investigated statistically the cases of 85 patients with scabies who admitted to the outpatient clinic of the Dermatological Division, Shizuoka Red Cross Hospital, from 1981 to 1990. Of 85 patients 58 were male, the male-female ratio was 2.1 : 1. The teenager was the dominant age group. As to the seasonal change the number of patients was larger in autumn and winter than in spring and summer. The number of patients was maximum in November and minimum in June. Mites or eggs were found from 32(43%) out of 75 patients who received microscopic examination. About the half number of patients consulted us for the first time after 1 to 3 months duration of the illness. Mites or eggs were found easily in cases of more than 7 months duration of the illness. Intrafamilial transmission was found to be the main cause of scabies. The ratio of the scabies patients to all new patients from 1981 to 1990 was 0.247% in our hospital. This ratio was the smallest among the data of other dermatological clinics in Japan. The main reason was probably that the patients with scabies were not concentrated in our hospital, because there were many dermatological clinics in Shizuoka City.