Scott Walken

But things like shoes that can't be washed, they need to be put into a plastic bag and left with the neck of the bag tied for four days so that the mites will die away.

And then once the treatment is completed, sometimes the itch will take a few weeks to go away.

So it's, you know, it's a real nuisance for people, so it is.

Well, I think most people will be able to work out if they've been in contact because it's usually household contact or overnight contact.

But, I mean, you're right.

In theory, there's a risk that some people could be missed.

Yes.

In Ireland, there have been increasing number of outbreaks of scabies reported.

And that's an international phenomenon.

That's a similar situation has arisen in the UK and across Europe.

So the numbers have been rising.

There are some theories as to why that is.

So there was a period where the first line treatments were less readily available because of supply chain difficulties.

So because of that, it became a little bit harder to treat.

So that's one reason.

There is also a theory that people in the last number of years have been in closer contact with each other than they were, say, back in 2020-21.

So that's another theory.

I'm not sure anybody knows for absolute certain, but they're the sorts of ideas that are thought to be contributing to these increasing number of outbreaks.

Correct.

Yeah, it can affect any age group, really.