Laboratory diagnosis of scabies.

All the above listed reasons as well as the experience we have obtained with this method, justify our recommendation of the introduction of the laboratory diagnosis of scabies through the method of lye scraping of the skin into routine practice. A single parasite element is enough for determining the diagnosis while, for the above mentioned reasons, a negative microscope finding does not exclude the parasitic etiology of the given disease. We therefore recommend in the diagnosis of scabies that the following criteria are parallely used: 1. an objective skin finding 2. laboratory proof of the causative agent of infestation 3. subjective feelings of the patient (itching at the typical time) 4. positive epidemiological anamnesis, primarily the occurrence of clinical symptoms in several members of a family or a group 5. diminishing of clinical symptoms after specific treatment with an anti-scabies medicament.