Scott Walken

So nobody is, you know, immune to it as such.

It can affect anybody.

OK.

And, you know, I might just say, there's a misconception about it that it can be in some way related to poor hygiene.

And that is absolutely not the case.

It's something that's transmitted from hand to hand and it has nothing to do with, you know, personal hygiene.

Well, it is so incredibly itchy and uncomfortable that people essentially are forced to get treatment.

But if it's treated inadequately, that's probably a commoner situation.

It can impact sleep and that can have impacts on energy and mental health.

If any of us are very sleep-deprived,

it will kind of get in on us, you know.

But there's no, sometimes they can get infected, but with, you know, like a bacterial infection, they can get an extra infection on top of them with all the scratching.

But usually what happens is it's so intensely itchy that people come for treatment when they start to get those symptoms.

Yes.

So if somebody has scabies, they should avoid contact with other people.

You know, children shouldn't go to school, for example.

But once they have been treated, once they have had treatment, 24 hours later, they can then return to school.

It might be useful for people to have access to high quality information.

And the Health Protection Surveillance Centre website has a page with fact sheets on scabies.