Scabies Outbreak Ended in Prison

[geovalin]

Khmer Times/Jonathan Cox

A massive scabies outbreak in Kampong Cham prison earlier this year afflicted one third of the prison’s 1,000 inmates with this painful skin condition, according to a press release by the International Committee of the Red Cross. A four-day disinfection campaign by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in March eradicated scabies from the prison and new measures have been put in place to improve hygiene there.

Scabies is not the only infectious health problem plaguing inmates in Cambodian prisons. Respiratory infections like typhoid fever can also spread quickly in overcrowded, unhygienic cells. “When you have overcrowded conditions, it’s not only one health problem,” said Graziella Leite Piccoli, an ICRC public relations official for Asia. “The more crowded it is, the more challenging it is to maintain hygienic conditions.”

Scabies is spread by a microscopic mite that thrives in prisons, where inmates live crowded together, often without basic hygiene. The mite can spread through direct skin-to-skin contact or through clothing and bedding. Once a person is infected, the allergic reaction to the mites cause severe itchiness and a rash that, while not life-threatening, can be extremely painful.

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