Yesterday, July 23rd 2008 the London Free Press wrote that an Ontario Hospital has reported its eighth case of scabies: http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/CanadaWorld/2008/07/23/6236856-sun.html. Gross? Yea, I guess if you consider a mite burrowing under the stratum corneum of your skin laying eggs, defecating, feeding on exudate and casting their molted skins as they grow disgusting, then yea, it's gross.

The scabies mite, Sarcoptes scabei was discovered by an Italian naturalist from Montegiorgio, Italy named Diacinto Cestoni. Makes me proud to be Italian.

Surprisingly the mites themselves do not cause the worst part of the disease called scabies (a.k.a. sarcoptic mange in animals) - it is the host immune response that causes extreme itching that typically introduces bacteria into the skin. The word for the day is "pruritis" otherwise known as itching. That's the type of word I have to say out loud 1) because I can't spell it otherwise and 2) it's fun to say.