Scabies-like rash in Iowa Hospital

[Guest guest]



Spencer, Iowa · Sunday, February 28, 2010

Fair ~ 19°F

Stories since 2007 Blogs Comments Photos Events Classifieds

Home

News

Sports

Opinion

Records

Obituaries

Weddings

Engagements

Blogs

Coupons

Classifieds

RSS

Print Email link Respond to editor Post comment Share link Bookmark this story using your favorite social networking sites below:

Facebook

Twitter

del.icio.us

Digg

StumbleUpon

Technorati

Newsvine

Reddit

Google

Highly contagious 'scabies-like rash' reported locallyTuesday, April 28, 2009

By Kris Todd, Daily Reporter Staff

Spencer Hospital officials have confirmed a suspected "scabies-like rash" in northwest Iowa. "We have, at the hospital, had some suspected cases of a skin rash," Zulk, the hospital's director of public relations and marketing, said Monday afternoon. "To say whether it's scabies, that isn't confirmed." "Diagnosing scabies involves skin scrapings to locate the scabies mite," she continued. "And the rash that is a symptom typically of scabies has a series of red bumps. Where those bumps are does not mean that there's a mite. Rather, it means a mite has been there. So, diagnosis could involve scraping a lot of areas of the body. The typical recommendation from health care providers and from physicians is to treat based on the symptoms rather than doing a confirmed skin biopsy." A patient was treated for another illness at the Spencer Hospital earlier this month. According to Zulk, it was later discovered that he had a skin rash and had exposed some staff to it. "Last week, we had treated our staff members who had been presented with skin rashes, as well as any patients who potentially would have been exposed," Zulk said. "Last week, anyone who had presented a rash to Employee Health was sent home and given the cream for the medicated treatment. The hospital has also ordered a large supply of the medicated cream, and all hospital employees are being treated prophylactically." "Scabies is a highly contagious skin disorder, and we are aggressively treating it here at Spencer Hospital, as well as prophylactically treating scabies or the suspected scabies. If anyone in the community suspects that they may have been exposed, they should contact their personal physician," she advised. "I think we're doing our best to prophylactically treat all of our employees to prevent any further spread," Dee Vaage, Spencer Hospital's infection control nurse, added. "We've been in contact with the Iowa Department of Public Health and are using their recommendations to treat it as aggressively as we can to protect not only our employees, but our patients." Iowa Lakes Community College is among the entities which began notifying its students and staff this weekend via its e-mail and voicemail alert system. "The Saturday night announcement indicated that nursing students in the associate degree nursing program and practical nursing students were not to report on Monday for any nursing class, clinical or to any other classes that they might have. Another (alert) went out on Sunday. It directed all students to go to our Web site and to click on Emergency Information," said Jane , the northwest Iowa college's executive director of marketing. There, they read: "Due to an outbreak in northwest Iowa of the skin condition called scabies, all Iowa Lakes nursing students are not to attend classes or clinical experiences April 27-28. Instead, nursing students are to go to eCompanion to receive more information. Nursing students are required to be treated prior to returning to class, clinical or Iowa Lakes campus housing. All other students are to attend their regular classes. Those who are concerned that they may have been exposed to scabies should contact their local health care provider for appropriate diagnosis and treatment." "(Some of) our individuals have been diagnosed with symptoms characteristic of scabies," reported. "I don't want to give a specific number, but I will tell you that less than 3 percent. We have over 220 students in those two programs -- because we have the evening and weekend classes and regular daytime classes -- and this applies to everybody." "This action we've taken is based on the fact that we want to limit further exposure and address this now -- and not be dealing with this in the future," concluded.

Q. What is scabies?

Could severe stomach cramping be due to MMS1

Hi All,My husband's in bed right now w/severe sudden stomach cramps. Could it be due to increased dose of MMS1 on empty stomach?

Canada Toolbar : Search from anywhere on the web and bookmark your favourite sites. Download it now!