Scabies: The invisible skin infection that is more than skin-deep

What is it like to itch all the time, to lose sleep every night, to be dazed in the classroom and accept this as normal?

For many months now, 12-year-old Budhram’s* skin had been itching incessantly. Three of the ten boys in his dormitory at a residential school for Baiga Adivasis (a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group) in Chattisgarh had the same problem. Back home, Budhram’s younger siblings and mother also had an itch that refused to go away.

This story of daily, mass torment is common across India – from Kondh tribals in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh to the labouring poor of Bihar and Gujarat. Entire villages may have a disease that has afflicted humanity for millenia, but remains neglected by patients and public health authorities alike – scabies.

For Budhram, living with scabies means unrelenting, uncontrollable itching that keeps him awake at night and hampers his concentration at school during the day. Some local practitioners’ injections provide only partial relief, at a high recurring cost. Meanwhile, years of sleepless nights compounded by hunger, anemia and hard physical labour have robbed his mother of a good life. She has collapsed from exhaustion on more than one occasion.

Sleep disruption for short or long periods is associated with an...

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