page_title: Scabies
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Scabies / History
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Museo di storia naturale di Firenze, Sezione Biomedica, Istituto di Anatomia umana patologica, sculture in cera di casi di studio didattici. Lebbra English: Leprosy
context_page_description: Scabies is a contagious skin infestation by the mite Sarcoptes scabiei. The most common symptoms are severe itchiness and a pimple-like rash. Occasionally, tiny burrows may appear on the skin. In a first-ever infection, infected person will usually develop symptoms within two to six weeks. During a second infection, symptoms may begin within 24 hours. These symptoms can be present across most of the body or just certain areas such as the wrists, between fingers, or along the waistline. The head may be affected, but this is typically only in young children. The itch is often worse at night. Scratching may cause skin breakdown and an additional bacterial infection in the skin.
  Scabies is caused by infection with the female mite Sarcoptes scabiei var. hominis, an ectoparasite. The mites burrow into the skin to live and deposit eggs. The symptoms of scabies are due to an allergic reaction to the mites. Often, only between 10 and 15 mites are involved in an infection. Scabies is most often spread during a relatively long period of direct skin contact with an infected person such as that which may occur during sex or living together.
context_section_description: Scabies has been observed in humans since ancient times. Archeological evidence from Egypt and the Middle East suggests scabies was present as early as 494 BC. In the fourth century BC, Aristotle reported on "lice" that "escape from little pimples if they are pricked" –  a description consistent with scabies. Arab physician, Ibn Zuhr is believed to have been the first to discover the scabies mites.
  The Roman encyclopedist and medical writer Aulus Cornelius Celsus (c. 25 BC – 50 AD) is credited with naming the disease "scabies" and describing its characteristic features. The parasitic etiology of scabies was documented by the Italian physician Giovanni Cosimo Bonomo (1663–1696) in his 1687 letter, "Observations concerning the fleshworms of the human body". Bonomo's description established scabies as one of the first human diseases with a well-understood cause.
  In Europe in the late 19th through mid-20th centuries, a sulfur-bearing ointment called by the medical eponym of Wilkinson's ointment was widely used for topical treatment of scabies. The contents and origins of several versions of the ointment were detailed in correspondence published in the British Medical Journal in 1945.
caption: Wax figurine of a man with Norwegian scabies
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