Occupational risk of scabies among healthcare workers: problem focus and personal experience

Introduction: scabies is a contagious parasitic disease which can cause hospital outbreaks, with possible involvement of sanitary staff, and considerable economic and managerial implications. The Policlinico San Matteo of Pavia adopts (since 2005) a protocol for the management of index cases, based on early patient isolation, identification of close contacts, and their prophylactic treatment. We report here descriptive data on reported cases of scabies and on the effectiveness of the