Scabies Health Video

Scabies has many home-remedies, including an oatmeal bath. Learn about scabies from a doctor in this skin care video.

Take Action

Take an oatmeal bath
Use Cortisone
Seek medical advice

About this Author

Dr. Loretta Ciraldo, the author of the book Six Weeks to Sensational Skin, is a board certified dermatologist who has made numerous appearances on television shows such as Good Morning America. She holds a degree from Hunter College in New York, an M.D. from Downstate University at SUNY, and did her residency at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Ciraldo has been a board-certified dermatologist since 1982, and is currently a voluntary professor at the University of Miami, where she runs a clinic in cosmetic dermatology.

DR. LORETTA CIRALDO: Hi, I'm Dr. Loretta Ciraldo, author of "6 Weeks to Sensational Skin" and a board-certified dermatologist for nearly 30 years and professor of dermatology at the University of Miami School of Medicine. Now, there is kind of a dread skin disease called scabies. And what this is, is a very itchy rash, sometimes more itchy at night. And it's a rash that has a predilection or tends to come in our creases. So you're especially going to see it between the fingers, sometimes under the arms and oftentimes in the genital area. And this is caused by a microscopic mite, a mite that cannot be seen just with our eye. And the mite gets under the surface of the skin and unfortunately has a tendency to spread all over the skin. If you are someone who has an itchy rash, the first thing you can do is you can try to just buy a little bit of over-the-counter cortisone, get into a nice oatmeal bath and see if the itch will go. But I do really kind of beg of you that if the rash is in the genital area, if it's between your fingers, then sooner instead of later, please seek medical advice from a good board-certified dermatologist so that you could have an early diagnosis made of scabies if you do have this because there's a wonderful effective treatment that can just help so much to keep you from having many itchy sleepless nights and to prevent you from spreading it to your loved ones.