From: "Steve Harris" <sbharris@ix.RETICULATEDOBJECTcom.com>
Newsgroups: sci.physics,sci.med
Subject: Lice and scabies and whatnot (Re: Invitation to have your scientific 
	horoscope charted)
Date: Tue, 18 Jun 2002 12:25:39 -0600
Message-ID: <aenuc1$qln$1@slb4.atl.mindspring.net>

What are called "crabs" are one varient of lice, similar to head and body
lice, but adapted to living in the pubic region and being sexually
transmitted. Lice are sometimes called "cooties." The pubic variety are more
crablike with shorter bodies and have a bigger and nastier set of middle and
hind claws for gripping pubic hair, but otherwise are just lice (six-legged
insects).  "Nits" are simply the egg cases of lice, attached to individual
hairs with stickem and showing up as a little inert thing stuck to the hair,
like a preying mantis egg case. These don't move and are clearly not the
critter. All species of lice (head, body, pubic) make these nits.  They are
combed out of hair with fine lice combs, or else by "nitpicking" (a word
which has lost its origin in this age of sanitation). Only body lice
transmit diseases like typhus. Head lice are more of a social stigma than a
real public health problem, dispite your local elementary school's probable
hysteria.

Lice are all easily visible to the naked eye, but not so the tiny mite which
causes scabies. These are no more than a moving black dot under the best of
seeing conditions, and as they are often buried, you can't alway see that.
Mites are crustacea like lice, but otherwise are ten-legged beasties, more
closely related to spiders than to lice (which, as has been noted, are
insects, like fleas). Scabies show up as itchy red bumps that are more like
a series of mosquito bites, and these have the same origin because they are
an allergic reaction, in this case to to mite feces rather than to mosquito
saliva.  Mites/scabies can be transmitted sexually or non-sexually.  They
are harder to get rid of (lots of smelly lotion), and it takes longer.
Sometimes the diagnosis is delayed, especially with minor infections and
non-savvy doctors.

Hope this all helps.

SBH






<jmfbahciv@aol.com> wrote in message news:aenlbs$p8m$3@bob.news.rcn.net...
> In article <FhE7kaygAzD9Ewmz@baesystems.com>,
>    Richard Herring <richard.herring@baesystems.com> wrote:
> >In message <aen9ce$anl$10@bob.news.rcn.net>, jmfbahciv@aol.com writes
> >>In article <bpu8GQbIMxD9EwEH@baesystems.com>,
> >>   Richard Herring <richard.herring@baesystems.com> wrote:
> >>>In message <aei45o$hml$1@bob.news.rcn.net>, jmfbahciv@aol.com writes
> >>>>
> >>>>Scabies.  Another slang term for them is crabs.
> >>>
> >>>Aren't they two different insects?
> >>>
> >>Not according to the damned doctor (who insisted that the only
> >>place people catch them is in a drunk tank).  I finally looked
> >>them up myself.  The text didn't give the slang terms.  I can't
> >>remember but I don't think they're insects.  They're mites.
> >
> >Scabies, yes, but this side of the Atlantic crabs are lice.
>
> Neat.  That's another thing I'll have to remember not to talk
> about.  Lice are nits.  What are nits over there?
>
> /BAH
>
>
>
> Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.

From: "Steve Harris" <sbharris@ix.RETICULATEDOBJECTcom.com>
Newsgroups: sci.physics,sci.med
Subject: Re: Lice and scabies and whatnot (Re: Invitation to have your 
	scientific horoscope charted)
Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2002 13:15:43 -0600
Message-ID: <aeqlme$k5u$1@slb3.atl.mindspring.net>

<jmfbahciv@aol.com> wrote in message news:aepqav$r77$4@bob.news.rcn.net...
> > .. Mites/scabies can be transmitted sexually or non-sexually.
>
> Cats do it around here.

What kind? You sure you're not confusing them with fleas, lice, and other
easier-to-see wee beasties?

 The mites that cause scabies are human-specific. Hard for me to believe
that a cat could be a fo-mite for those (groans at his own awful pun on
behalf of those who won't appreciate it). You'd have to be handling a pretty
fresh cat (may I offer you a cat just handled by an scabitous person,
Madame, and also having slept in the sheets of such a person all night?). I
suppose it's possible.  Bedsheets do work.

The worst mites of feline-dom are feline ear mites, and they cause that
black crud the gives cats so much grief.  They are specific to cats, though.
There are drops for them, and a cat with mineral oil drops in one ear and
that ear down, and a wary look for what you're going to do next, is a pretty
funny sight.


> I finally used garlic pills.  They don't like that for some reason.

I didn't know that kept mites away. It will keep your friends away. As the
old joke goes-- an apple a day keeps the doctor away; three a day keeps
everybody away.


To a Louse [on a lady's bonnet]
Robert Burns

Ha! whaur ye gaun, ye crowlin ferlie?
Your impudence protects you sairly;
I canna say but ye strunt rarely,
Owre gauze and lace;
Tho', faith! I fear ye dine but sparely
On sic a place.

Ye ugly, creepin, blastit wonner,
Detested, shunn'd by saunt an' sinner,
How daur ye set your fit upon her-
Sae fine a lady?
Gae somewhere else and seek your dinner
On some poor body.

Swith! in some beggar's haffet squattle;
There ye may creep, and sprawl, and sprattle,
Wi' ither kindred, jumping cattle,
In shoals and nations;
Whaur horn nor bane ne'er daur unsettle
Your thick plantations.

Now haud you there, ye're out o' sight,
Below the fatt'rels, snug and tight;
Na, faith ye yet! ye'll no be right,
Till ye've got on it-
The verra tapmost, tow'rin height
O' Miss' bonnet.

My sooth! right bauld ye set your nose out,
As plump an' grey as ony groset:
O for some rank, mercurial rozet,
Or fell, red smeddum,
I'd gie you sic a hearty dose o't,
Wad dress your droddum.

I wad na been surpris'd to spy
You on an auld wife's flainen toy;
Or aiblins some bit dubbie boy,
On's wyliecoat;
But Miss' fine Lunardi! fye!
How daur ye do't?

O Jeany, dinna toss your head,
An' set your beauties a' abread!
Ye little ken what cursed speed
The blastie's makin:
Thae winks an' finger-ends, I dread,
Are notice takin.

O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae mony a blunder free us,
An' foolish notion:
What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us,
An' ev'n devotion!

=======================

The last paragraph is especially fine.


SBH

From: "Steve Harris" <SBHarris123@ix.netcom.com>
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Lice and scabies and whatnot (Re: Invitation to have your 
	scientific horoscope charted)
Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2002 23:00:06 -0600
Message-ID: <aerosn$2a$1@slb3.atl.mindspring.net>

"Kay Lancaster" <kay@hub.fern.com> wrote in message
news:slrnah217l.fe7.kay@hub.fern.com...
> > The worst mites of feline-dom are feline ear mites, and they cause
> > that black crud the gives cats so much grief.  They are specific to
> > cats, though. There are drops for them, and a cat with mineral oil
> > drops in one ear and that ear down, and a wary look for what you're
> > going to do next, is a pretty funny sight.
>
> That's called "airplane ears" in my family.

Great term. And you can see it in cats with bad mite infections even
untreated. Ears held flat out like a stealth bomber.  One of those diseases
you can diagnose without an exam, sort of like the dog scrubbing his butt on
the grass, that you can bet has impacted anal glands (alas for humors' sake
that the same species doesn't do the airplane-ears AND the butt-scrub...).
As the great Yogi Bera says, you can observe a lot, just by looking. For
instance, did you know that cat chin acne is transmissible from cat to cat,
and has a definite rise and fall cycle, after which it clears up on its own?
You won't read that specifically in any veterinary journal article I've been
able to find, but it's true. I've *seen* it.

SBH

--
Steve Harris
You can email me at sbharris123@ix.netcom.com
But remove the numerals in the address first.

==============================

Our nada who art in Nada
Nada be thy nada..

            -- Dada Hemingway
==========================

From: "Steve Harris" <SBHarris123@ix.netcom.com>
Newsgroups: sci.physics,sci.med
Subject: Re: Lice and scabies and whatnot (Re: Invitation to have your 
	scientific horoscope charted)
Date: Thu, 20 Jun 2002 18:02:47 -0600
Message-ID: <aetrs5$oai$1@slb0.atl.mindspring.net>

<jmfbahciv@aol.com> wrote in message news:aesbs4$ag7$1@bob.news.rcn.net...
> In article <aeqlme$k5u$1@slb3.atl.mindspring.net>,
>    "Steve Harris" <sbharris@ix.RETICULATEDOBJECTcom.com> wrote:
> ><jmfbahciv@aol.com> wrote in message
news:aepqav$r77$4@bob.news.rcn.net...
>
> Are you sure that crabs aren't scabies?  I remembered last night,
> that the reason scabies were called crabs was because they looked
> like real crabs (leg count).  Lice have six which isn't the number
> real crabs have.  My information, AFAIR, is folklore.

No, really, mites are too small to see the details with the naked eye, so
any resemblance to crabs would be from a microscopic exam, and that's not
the origin of the common name. Pubic lice are large enough to be seen as
lice which are not as elongated as standard body lice, but really more
dinner-plate shaped to the naked eye. That and the the thick legs gives them
the "crab" name.

Personals ad: "Urgent: will trade two blind crabs for one with no teeth."


--
Steve Harris
You can email me at sbharris123@ix.netcom.com
But remove the numerals in the address first.

==============================

Our nada who art in Nada
Nada be thy nada..

            -- Dada Hemingway
==========================

From: "Steve Harris" <SBHarris123@ix.netcom.com>
Newsgroups: sci.physics,sci.med
Subject: Re: Lice and scabies and whatnot (Re: Invitation to have your 
	scientific horoscope charted)
Date: Thu, 20 Jun 2002 18:06:58 -0600
Message-ID: <aetsae$3m7$1@slb5.atl.mindspring.net>

jmfbahciv@aol.com> wrote in message news:aesbs4$ag7$1@bob.news.rcn.net...
> In article <aeqlme$k5u$1@slb3.atl.mindspring.net>,

> > The mites that cause scabies are human-specific. Hard for me to believe
> >that a cat could be a fo-mite for those (groans at his own awful pun on
> >behalf of those who won't appreciate it).
>
> :-)
>
> The medical text (I can't remember what it was but it was in
> the public library said that a source could be cats).  And,
> since the doctor was adamant that JMF couldn't have gotten
> them in _his_ hospital, I decided that was the most likely
> source.  JMF's ex had 12+ long haired cats and never cleaned.


You can get them in any hospital. All it take is one careless nurse. The
problem with scabies is that in non-immunocompromized people who bathe, they
can be really atypical. A few itchy bumps here and there-- nothing like the
classic picture. But get them on a baby or immunocompromized person, and
they spread like chickenpox.

> > .. You'd have to
> >be handling a pretty
> >fresh cat (may I offer you a cat just handled by an scabitous person,
> >Madame, and also having slept in the sheets of
> >such a person all night?). I
> >suppose it's possible.  Bedsheets do work.
>
> Nah, not if your immune system has just been compromised with
> a 24x8 constant chemo drip the week before.  In addition to
> all this, the guy got thrush from the chemo.  Cancer treatment
> is hell on earth.

Yep.


--
Steve Harris
You can email me at sbharris123@ix.netcom.com
But remove the numerals in the address first.

==============================

Our nada who art in Nada
Nada be thy nada..

            -- Dada Hemingway
==========================

From: "Steve Harris" <SBHarris123@ix.netcom.com>
Newsgroups: sci.physics,sci.med
Subject: Re: Lice and scabies and whatnot (Re: Invitation to have your 
	scientific horoscope charted)
Date: Fri, 21 Jun 2002 16:36:08 -0600
Message-ID: <af0b50$u39$1@slb3.atl.mindspring.net>

<jmfbahciv@aol.com> wrote in message news:aev1ct$dr4$5@bob.news.rcn.net...
> > The
> >problem with scabies is that in non-immunocompromized people
> > who bathe,
>
> Showers?  I never thought about that.  I'd assumed the cleaners or
> something like that.  What is this (a source trace) called?...vector?

Vector if alive, fomite if dead.

No, scabies aren't spread by showers-- their fomites if any are bedsheets
and clothes. They can be spread by a handshake, even. I meant merely that
adult people with normal immune systems who shower and bathe often, usually
have scabies infections, when they do get them, which are quite mild,
because the little buggers don't have as much chance to spread thickly and
widely over the skin between dousings. So they're often scattered widely,
and the patterns are not classical and linear, and sometimes not even in the
conventional clothes-close-fit areas. Sometimes there are no patterns in a
really clean person-- just a few itchy bumps here and there. But they itch
like mad (scabies ARE the seven year itch). So the nurse can have an itchy
bump or two between the fingers, think it's a soap allergy, and there you
go.  If she doesn't wash, and even if she didn't wash soon enough before,
her immunocompromized patient can have them from neck to toe (even, rarely,
HEAD to toe) a few weeks later-- as I said, like chickenpox.


--
Steve Harris
You can email me at sbharris123@ix.netcom.com
But remove the numerals in the address first.

==============================

Our nada who art in Nada
Nada be thy nada..

            -- Dada Hemingway
==========================