Of all the demographics around the world, children are the group with the single highest risk for contracting scabies.  Every day, millions of children wake up, get ready and head off for a day at school.  Once they arrive, they spend the day in a relatively small area with many of their peers.  In this small space, there is more touching, interaction and lack of hygiene than most other places on Earth.  After considering the situation children are in five days a week, it is not hard to understand why their “environments” would be prime breeding grounds for the mites that cause scabies.

Scabies is an extremely contagious condition and is easily spread through any kind of skin to skin contact.  Unlike many conditions and diseases which must be spread through actual bodily fluids, an act as simple as a hug can actually result in one more person contracting scabies.  This means that if one child has scabies, every single time he comes into contact with another child, the risk of spreading the condition to other children continues to grow.

In addition to spreading this condition like wildfire, there is another special scabies related concern for children.  While scabies normally surfaces somewhere below the neck on adults, there have been many scabies cases involving children where the rash appeared or spread to the face and scalp.  Although this seems like nothing more than another inconvenience, it can actually lead to several serious side-effects.  If your child develops scabies, it is important for them to be thoroughly monitored by a reliable doctor.

For more information on scabies visit http://www.scabies.me.uk

Although almost all cases of shingles occur in adults, shingles is actually caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox in children.  The virus that causes both chickenpox and shingles is the varicella-zoster virus.  In eighty percent of people, the varicella-zoster virus causes them to have a case of chickenpox as a child and then remains dormant for the rest of their lives.

For the remaining twenty percent, the varicella-zoster virus resurfaces at some point during the adulthood and causes chickenpox.  There is no concrete evidence as to why the varicella-zoster resurfaces in some people but not others, but stress, fatigue and a weak immune system are considered to be the three most common factors in cases of shingles.

Shingles is a condition that involves two main stages.  Shingles first appears as a painful sensation along one side of the body.  Within several days, a rash begins to accompany the painful sensation.  Most cases of shingles last anywhere from two to four weeks, but the precise duration depends on several different factors.  If you seek the help of a doctor during a case of shingles, they can provide you with information and possible medication to minimize the effects that shingles has on your body.

More information on shingles can be found at http://www.shingles.me.uk