Abstract :
Introduction: Scabies has been a major health problem in many countries worldwide because of its very
high prevalence. The estimated prevalence varies from 0.2 to 71%. Nearly hundred million people are
affected worldwide. Scabies remains a major problem in terms of its contagious nature and the secondary
infections which occur as a result of the disease.
Aims: To compare the efficacy of Topical Ivermectin and other scabicidal agents. To assess the
improvement in severity of pruritus and severity of lesions.
Materials and Methods: This was an prospective and comparative study conducted in dermatology OPD
of Madras Medical College, a tertiary care centre in south India between Oct ’ 2015 and Aug’ 2016. About
90 clinically diagnosed Scabies cases were randomly segregated into three factions [Group G (GBHC) =
30 cases of scabies treated with 1% GBHC lotion, Group P (Permethrin) = 30 cases of scabies treated with
5% Permethrin cream and Group I (Ivermectin) = 30 cases of scabies treated with 0.5% Ivermectin cream.
Patients response to treatment was followed up with severity of pruritus score and severity of lesions score
at baseline, third and sixth week of treatment. Based on the assessment of these scores, the response to
treatment was categorized into good, moderate and poor. Data was compiled and analyzed with the help of
Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS).
Results: Mean age of the study population was 27.66 years. Forty seven subjects were males (52.2%) and
forty three subjects were females (47.8%). In Group I (Ivermectin ) , 86.6%(26 out of 30 cases) had good
response to treatment when compared to Group P (Permethrin) 36.7% (11 out of 30 cases) and Group G
(GBHC) 10%(3 out of 30 cases). Group I (Ivermectin ) compared favorably to the other two drugs with
nearly more than three fourth of the cases having significant improvement at an earlier stage while Group
P (Permethrin) showed better response after twice application when compared to Group G (GBHC).
Conclusions: From this study, it can be concluded that topical 0.5% Ivermectin can be considered as the
first line of treatment modality for scabies among other available agents as it causes earlier and maximum
therapeutic response. This study further emphasizes the need for newer effective drugs for treatment of
scabies.
Keyword :
Scabies, Ivermectin, Permethrin, GBHC.