Scabies is known to be a public health problem in many settings but the majority of recent data is from rural settings in the Pacific. There is a need for high quality data from sub-Saharan Africa and peri-urban settings to inform scale up of scabies control efforts. There have been anecdotal reports of scabies being a public health problem in Liberia but robust data are lacking. We conducted a cross-sectional cluster-randomised prevalence survey for scabies in a peri-urban community in Monrovia, Liberia in February-March Participants underwent a standardised examination conducted by trained local health care workers.
Prevalence estimates were calculated accounting for clustering at community and household levels and associations with key demographic variables assessed through multivariable random-effects logistic regression. The prevalence of scabies was 9.
Scabies prevalence was lower in females and higher in the youngest age group; no associations were found with other collected demographic or socio-economic variables. Our study indicates a substantial burden of scabies in this peri-urban population in Liberia.
This was associated with significant impact on quality of life, highlighting the need for action to control scabies in this population. Further work is needed to assess the impact of interventions in this context on both the prevalence of scabies and quality of life. Scabies is an infestation with a microscopic mite which affects many people living in low-resource tropical countries.
It causes intense itching, which can lead to complications through bacterial infection and poor quality of life. To help develop global scabies control programmes, we need a better understanding of how common it is across different tropical settings. We conducted a survey to assess the burden of scabies and bacterial skin infection in a random sample of people living in a community in Monrovia, Liberia. Information about participants and their household were collected and their skin was examined; those with skin conditions were asked about its impact on quality of life.
