The medieval skin disease surging through Britain: My mother caught it in hospital, and then it spread to my whole family – even though we’re super clean. This is why everyone’s at risk… and how you can protect yourself

Initially Amanda Rushton thought the tiny bumps that suddenly appeared on her arms and side were nothing more than an allergy – but then within days she was hit by a maddening urge to itch.

‘It was worse at night, I felt as if my flesh was crawling,’ says Amanda, 54, from Accrington, Lancashire.

‘The itching was so bad I couldn’t leave the house.’

After a month Amanda went to her doctor, who recognised the problem instantly.

Amanda had caught scabies – a highly infectious infestation of microscopic mites that burrow under the skin – from her mother when she was in hospital.

‘I literally recoiled when the doctor told me,’ she says. ‘I thought that was some archaic disease soldiers got, or people in camps, not normal clean people. He said it was rife lately in the UK.’

Scabies is caused by sarcoptes scabiei, a mite that’s invisible to the naked eye – it burrows under the skin to lay its eggs, leaving microscopic faeces which is what causes the skin irritation.

But while people often associate scabies with poor hygiene, in fact anyone is at risk.

‘It’s spread by close contact, no matter how hygienic you are,’ says Dr Susannah Fraser, a consultant dermatologist based in Edinburgh.

‘The mite needs prolonged skin contact in order to move from one person to the other.’

Cases often surge during October and November partly because people spend more time alongside one another indoors, but also as a result of young people heading to university, as infestations can quickly spread through close contact settings such as student accommodation.

‘We are seeing a noticeable rise in cases of scabies in Central London at the moment but also across the UK in general,’ says Dr Tony Banerjee, an NHS England appraiser (who assesses other doctors) and a GP at HarleyDoc, based in Harley Street.

Symptoms – a rash and the intense itching – tend to develop within four to six weeks of initial infection and the itching tends to be most intense in the ‘web’ spaces between the fingers, wrists, thighs, buttocks, soles of feet, armpits and genital region, says Dr Fraser. This is possibly because the skin in these areas is thinner and softer so it’s easier for the mites to burrow in and lay their eggs there.

The quicker scabies is spotted, the easier it is to treat and the less likely it is that the infection will be passed on.

The problem is that to the untrained eye ‘scabies can be hard for people to identify – it may look like insect bites, or something non-specific, so this is likely to delay seeking treatment, and during this period it is indeed possible for it to spread,’ says Dr Fraser.

‘It can be quite a non-specific rash, but suspicion should be raised particularly if a person has itchy spots in the finger web spaces, wrists and genital area.’

Left untreated scabies, can persist for months or even years.

‘It is also possible to get secondary infection of scabies lesions, and it can also cause worsening of underlying skin conditions such as eczema,’ adds Dr Fraser.

In January Amanda’s 80-year old mother – who Amanda says caught scabies in hospital, died from sepsis and heart and kidney failure after a tumour was found in her stomach. While scabies did not directly lead to the sepsis, Amanda believes it contributed to her death.

‘I only wish I’d realised what was going on sooner,’ she says.

Amanda is telling her story to help reduce stigma around having the bugs and encourage others affected to seek help.

‘I never in a million years thought I would get scabies,’ says Amanda. ‘I am clean, tidy, wash the bedding weekly and thought it was something that happened to other people.’

It was in July 2024, just after her mother had recently been discharged from hospital, that Amanda noticed she had tiny bumps on her arms and sides which ‘itched like mad’. And while caring for and washing her mother, Amanda noticed she had them herself, too.

‘I thought nothing of it but then they got worse,’ says Amanda.

Amanda, who is a full-time carer to her 13-year-old son who has special needs (she also has a 12-year-old daughter) saw her GP, who took one look and said: ‘Scabies.’

He prescribed permethrin, a cream containing an insecticide that’s commonly used for scabies and has to be applied all over the body, including the soles of the feet and between the toes and fingers.

Amanda used the lotion on herself and her children and washed all the bedding, linen and sofa covers they sat on regularly, as advised by her doctor.

‘It was really stressful. It was like a laundrette. I had bags and bags of things being washed, things in “quarantine” that couldn’t be washed, and then had to steam clean the carpets too. It was a nightmare. I was embarrassed and paranoid.’

It’s vital to follow the instructions on the packaging, and ensure thorough application to all areas, not just itchy areas says Dr Fraser.

Treatment should be left on for at least 12 hours and repeated after seven days to ensure both the scabies mites and the eggs are treated.

‘It is worth noting that scabies mites tend to die without a host within two to three days, so any items that cannot be washed should be sealed in a plastic bag for three days,’ she adds.

Amanda used two applications seven days apart but within days, she noticed the tiny red marks and itching had returned.

‘My heart literally sank,’ she says. ‘When I checked my son, who has Down’s syndrome, he had marks now too. I felt awful. I went back to the GP and he gave us more of the same cream, which we did again, as well as washing everything in the house at 90 degrees but by now it was really getting me down. I honestly felt suicidal some days. I was itching all night, so getting very little sleep caring for Mum, trying to soothe my son and keeping on top of bags and bags of laundry that I had to quarantine for two days if they accidentally fell on the carpet. I was going insane.’

After a few weeks she went back to the GP, who suggested she tried Derbac, a liquid treatment containing malathion, another insecticide (it’s available over the counter).

‘That didn’t work either,’ says Amanda. She joined a UK scabies group on Facebook ‘where there were hundreds of people like me at our wits’ end’.

After two months and with the whole family still itching, Amanda begged the GP to refer her son for specialist help ‘but he just told us to keep taking the cream and that scabies was “rife”. My life was being ruined. I was scared to leave the house, scared to put clothes on in case they were infected, washing everything constantly.’

Dr Fraser says there are several reasons some treatments fail. ‘Sometimes people delay seeking treatment as they may be embarrassed, but it’s important to seek treatment as soon as possible, because it becomes harder to treat.

‘Also, if people scratch the lesions a lot, the skin can get inflamed and even infected as a result, so this can make overall treatment harder.’

Adding to this is the growing problem of resistance to standard scabies treatments. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) say doctors can consider using ivermectin, an oral anti-parasitic medicine, if topical treatments have failed.

‘There has been an increase in scabies that is resistant to topical treatments, particularly in adults, says Dr Steve Taylor, a GP in Manchester and co-lead of the Doctors’ Association UK.

‘For the first time in my career I have been prescribing ivermectin as patients have returned on multiple occasions without resolving.’

Amanda asked her GP for ivermectin after reading about it online but ‘he just kept telling me to use the same lotions’.

Finally she resorted to buying benzyl benzoate online. This is another insecticide used to treat scabies, which is not routinely offered by GPs.

Dr Banerjee says: ‘Its potential side-effect of skin irritation means it should not be used in younger children or those patients with sensitive skin. There may also be cost implications as a result of that – everything is based on a cost/benefit ratio.’

Amanda applied the treatment as instructed on the label, to the whole family. ‘And after the treatments I had no itching. Weeks passed and still no itching.’

After nine months of suffering, she was itch free.

But three months later, her son displayed signs again.

‘I literally broke down. I couldn’t stop crying. I’d cured myself but his was back, which meant the whole house had to be treated again. So I bought more benzyl benzoate and treated the whole house. That was in June and so far we are scabies free.’

Amanda says: ‘I am so glad I finally got rid of the scabies for me and my family, but it was such a difficult time. I’d urge anyone with any telltale signs to see their GP as soon as possible so they don’t have to go through what we have.’