8 ways to cure scabies
with the Healthy Skin Program
Permethrin and Ivermectin for Scabies
Wonderful, detailed description of treating all types of scabies in a variety of environments (from the outback to hospitals).
The New England Journal of Medicine, Bart J. Currie, F.R.A.C.P., and James S. McCarthy, F.R.A.C.P. (9 pages, pdf document)
Useful information on treating all types of scabies. Focuses on community control, but applies equally well to individuals or families.
Healthy Skin Program — Treating scabies among the aborigines in the Northern Territory, Australia (May 2010, 27 pages, pdf document)
I have links all over my web site to studies to back up what I write. I only have a few listed here as it gets overwhelming to double-list such stuff so this section suffers neglect as a result.
In general scabies studies are done by universities or governments. Because drug companies don't pay for the studies, they tend to be on smaller groups of people. I think this means the studies are more honest.
Eurax (10% crotamiton) studies:
Crotamiton cream and lotion in the treatment of infants and young children with scabies
Comparison of oral ivermectin versus crotamiton 10% cream in the treatment of scabies
5% permethrin lotion is a prescription medicine.
If you see a prescription cream for sale on the internet, it isn't a reliable medicine. You won't really know what is in it.
In some countries, it is an over-the-counter product, but not in the good old USA.
Some questionable products have been for sale on Amazon and eBay but they are getting kicked off for complaints or being in violation of FDA regulations and/or state and federal laws.
Click here for my web page about choosing from different types of permethrin concentrate and mixing up permethrin for killing mites.
Nu-Stock is an ointment with 73% sulfur, plus 25% mineral oil and 2% mineral oil. Amazon has Nu-Stock in 12 oz. tubes which is enough to make quarts of 10% sulfur lotion.
It mixes really well with baby lotion ($4 for 27 oz at Wal-Mart!) to make whatever percent ointment you want. Mix 1 oz sulfur lotion with 6 oz baby lotion to make 7 oz of 10% sulfur lotion. See more recipe info here.
Sulfur powder can also be mixed with skin lotion.
Pre-mixed 10% sulfur creams are listed here.
See my page about sulfur for a lot more information.
I have sources for Eurax listed on my Eurax web page.
Eurax lotion or cream is a soothing lotion that relieves itching and helps kills scabies mites. It contains 10% crotamiton. This was my favorite treatment for scabies. No side effects! But it isn’t as powerful as permethrin, benzyl benzoate or sulfur.
I used to buy Eurax from England on Amazon, but that listing has been removed. So many on-line medical stores are unreliable or sell bogus products. I would not trust anything from India or China…there is simply no controls over those vendors. And the stores who claim to be in Canada are pretty phony. Imagine buying something that takes 10 days to come and then it doesn't do anything!
I have found an on-line store in Australia where I ordered Benzemul (benzyl benzoate) and it appeared to be the real thing, so I personally trust them. And I have had no complaints from anyone who has used my links and gone there to buy their products. I have no connection with this store except I have ordered from them.
When I ordered it took 9 or 10 days to arrive.
Another source of benzyl benzoate lotion is a product called KIllitch which is intended for horses. KIllitch is available on Amazon here and from England here. For no good reason the Amazon supplier has tripled their price. The English supplier may take a few days longer to deliver but it’s the same product at less than half the price.
Complete instructions for mixing up your own benzyl benzoate lotion and where to get ingredients are on my web page here.
Ivermectin is a prescription medication for humans. For animals it is sold over-the-counter. Click here for more information (sources and instructions and so forth).
If you print out and bring the Healthy Skin Program booklet and bring it with you to your doctor, they might agree to prescribe ivermectin pills for you. Page 14 has the most important information on permethrin, ivermectin and other medications they use. My experience is that most dermatologists and doctors have a hard time recognizing scabies. And if they do, they treat every case like a mild case and won't prescribe enough medication to treat a stubborn case. It's really frustrating when one expensive tube of permethrin cream doesn't cure you and then the doctor decides "Oh well, this can't be scabies." and then won't prescribe any more medication for scabies.
The scabies skin test is less than 50 percent reliable, so even that can only tell you if you do have it. Imagine, the average scabies case has 5 to 20 live mites on their body. A skin scraping tests less than a square inch. So a negative result doesn't tell you anything, except that little patch of skin didn't have any mites. But again, if you test negative, the doctor may ignore the possibility of scabies as a possible cause after that.
The trouble with scabies is that the itch is an allergic reaction to the mites by-products (saliva, poop, etc) so itching tells you where the mites have been, but it doesn't tell you where they are now.
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Full disclosure: I have personally bought and used almost everything I mention on my web site. I search for good deals on good products for myself and tell you where to find them. If you buy from Amazon I do get a small commission, but you get the same price you would anyway. Most of the other stores I mention pay me nothing, but if they are convenient or have a good deal, I tell you.
Thanks for your support. I'm not getting rich doing this. When folks use the product links I can see they care. It is a fair amount of work keeping the site up. And of course you can email me anytime.