{"id":2611,"date":"2020-01-29T15:40:50","date_gmt":"2020-01-29T02:40:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.awanuilabs.co.nz\/south\/canterbury\/?p=2611"},"modified":"2021-07-06T13:14:35","modified_gmt":"2021-07-06T01:14:35","slug":"diagnostic-testing-for-scabies-in-canterbury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.awanuilabs.co.nz\/south\/canterbury\/blog\/2020\/01\/29\/diagnostic-testing-for-scabies-in-canterbury\/","title":{"rendered":"Diagnostic Testing for Scabies in Canterbury"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The diagnosis of scabies is usually made clinically, as although laboratory testing can be performed by taking scrapings from the suspicious looking area of skin, this has very poor sensitivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like other regions in New Zealand, the positivity rate for scabies laboratory examination is very low in Canterbury, at < 10% of all collections. This can be due to multiple factors, including experience of the examiner, pre-treatment of the patient, absence of scabies on the patient or too few mites on a patient making them difficult to find.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As such, from Monday 10th February 2020, skin scrapings for Scabies will only be performed following a discussion of the primary care doctor with a clinical microbiologist. If the clinical microbiologist supports a scraping please note the name of the microbiologist on the request form and ask the patient to make an appointment with the laboratory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where there is no evidence of a discussion with a clinical microbiologist included on the request form the on call clinical microbiologist will review the request form and makes a decision regarding processing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Health Pathways contains information regarding diagnosis and testing which are included below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n