Getting rid of scabies once and for all: that is the aim of the new scabies action plan drawn up by Contractus, the alliance of Groningen’s eight largest student associations.
Scabies outbreaks are a growing problem among students in Groningen, as in the rest of the Netherlands. The itchy mites get under the skin and spread from one student to another via physical contact. Getting rid of them completely is not so easy.
‘We heard quite a few different stories from people around us about how you should treat scabies’, says Lotte Jonker, board member of Contractus. ‘But even a small difference in treatment can determine whether you are at risk of an outbreak again or not.’
Guidelines
That is why Contractus joined forces with a number of GPs and the Groningen health service GGD. ‘They helped us draw up concrete and unambiguous guidelines on how to act if you have, or think you have, scabies’, says Jonker. This week marks the kick-off of a campaign to share that information widely via student associations’ via social media.
The focus is not only on treatment, but also on who in your environment you should tell about the skin condition: roommates, bed partners and other people with whom you have a lot of physical contact.
Taboo
‘Watching a film together under a blanket can already cause you to infect another person’, says Jonker. ‘So to completely eradicate scabies, it is very important that everyone who might be infected takes action at the same time.’
Talking about it is still a bit taboo at the moment, Jonker knows. ‘In close circles, like with roommates, people feel they can discuss it, but it is still something that people find difficult to share. It’s not a nice thing to say either, that you have scabies.’
In any case, step one is: when in doubt, always have scabies diagnosed by your GP, because then you’ll know for sure.