A Brisbane mother is breaking her silence about a debilitating infection that has plagued her family for six months, as doctors warn of a surge in scabies cases across Queensland.
Tammy Jones and her family have been living with plastic bedding and bagged-up clothes while battling the tiny mites that cause severe itching and rashes.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Scabies outbreak grips Queensland as families suffer
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“The doctors, even when it first started, were trying to say it was dermatitis,” Jones said.
After finally being diagnosed with scabies, she discovered she wasn’t alone.
“I’m not alone. The stigma around it, I think people are also scared to speak up,” she said.
Medical professionals are reporting a significant increase in cases, with dermatologist Dr Nerilee Wall saying “we’re seeing a real uptick in cases at the moment.”
Experts believe the cost-of-living crisis may be fuelling the outbreak.
“There’s a theory that potentially the cost-of-living crisis is increasing the amount of infections we’re seeing because we’re seeing more people living in houses together,” Wall said.
Adding to concerns, there are fears current treatment options are failing.
“There is an urgent need for new drugs for scabies. They have no ovicidal activity, meaning they do not kill the eggs,” QIMR Berghofer researcher Professor Katja Fischer said.
QIMR Berghofer researchers are now trialling a new single-dose topical drug that, if successful, would be the first new treatment in 30 years.
Scabies is not a notifiable condition in Queensland, meaning there’s no legal obligation to report cases to Queensland Health, making numbers difficult to track.
However, doctors believe thousands of people across the state are currently infected.
Tropical regions, aged care facilities and schools are considered hot spots due to overcrowding and increased transmission risk.
“We have a problem, state-wide, Australia-wide, world-wide, and what is happening isn’t good enough,” Jones warned.
