\u2018So mentally draining\u2019<\/p>\n
Julie said she was not a typical sufferer, with most media coverage focused on scabies being an issue in student flats, schools or rest homes. <\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t even know anyone that had ever had them either. And my kids hadn\u2019t had them,\u201d Julie said. <\/p>\n
She contracted scabies without knowing where she could have got it from and may have unknowingly spread it during the weeks before her itching began.<\/p>\n
Because the symptoms were unfamiliar to her, Julie said it took a month of \u201cintense suffering\u201d before she received an accurate diagnosis.<\/p>\n
She originally thought she was having an allergic reaction, but her condition continued to worsen. <\/p>\n
\u201cI just couldn\u2019t sleep at night. I was taking so many drugs just to try to sleep due to the itch,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Following her diagnosis, she was given a topical treatment for both her and her husband, who had not shown symptoms yet. <\/p>\n
He remained asymptomatic for months before he started to show signs too. <\/p>\n
After the treatment did not work, Julie went back to the doctor and was told she was likely suffering from \u201cpost-itch syndrome\u201d.<\/p>\n
Julie, 65, told the Herald she received her scabies diagnosis in early April after never having had it before.<\/p>\n
\u201cI waited another week, and then it got way worse, and you could see the little burrows, they make lines on your body.\u201d <\/p>\n
After she returned to the doctor, she was told she had scabies yet again, and she was given Ivermectin. <\/p>\n
\u201cEvery three or four weeks, it [scabies] keeps coming back,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Julie said the situation had caused great disruption to her life, including multiple doctors\u2019 fees and hours of cleaning her home during treatments. <\/p>\n
\u201cYour mental health is just terrible. When I first found out, I was pretty horrified because I thought it was a dirty disease. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve kind of got used to it now, but every time it happens it\u2019s made me cry because it\u2019s so mentally draining.\u201d<\/p>\n
Julie said they had done \u201cevery single thing you could possibly do\u201d. <\/p>\n
Some of the protocols they \u201cmeticulously followed\u201d included 60C hot washes, high-heat drying, and abandoning their bedroom to sleep in a different room for a week. <\/p>\n
New research shows infestation with the parasitic scabies mite is linked with developing rheumatic fever. Photo \/ 123rf<\/p>\n
She said medical professionals informed them that the mites they were fighting were likely resistant to New Zealand\u2019s standard prescribed treatments. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur story is not unique.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the problem in New Zealand is when people get it, they keep quiet about it because they don\u2019t want to tell anyone,\u201d Julie said. <\/p>\n
National Public Health Service chief public health clinical officer Maria Poynter said Health NZ recognised that scabies caused \u201creal difficulties\u201d for some communities. <\/p>\n
\u201cScabies is not a notifiable disease, so we do not have national case numbers, but we are hearing that it is a concern in some places,\u201d Poynter said. <\/p>\n
She said Health NZ has worked with Pharmac to make the treatment permethrin more available at a lower cost, and has updated HealthEd resources to help the public prevent reinfection. <\/p>\n
Push for new treatment <\/p>\n
Julie said after five failed treatments, she and her husband were growing increasingly frustrated with the treatment options available. <\/p>\n
She hoped for a treatment like Spinosad (Natroba), which was used overseas. <\/p>\n
Pharmac\u2019s director of advice and assessment and chief medical officer Dr David Hughes said before Pharmac could fund a medicine, an application must be submitted through its assessment process.<\/p>\n
Hughes said an application has yet to be submitted for Spinosad (Natroba). <\/p>\n
Medsafe is New Zealand\u2019s medicines regulator and is responsible for determining if a medicine is safe and effective for use in New Zealand.<\/p>\n
\u201cPharmac can consider funding applications for medicines at the same time that Medsafe is reviewing the regulatory application; however, a medicine could not be funded through Pharmac\u2019s application process until Medsafe approval has been received,\u201d Hughes said.<\/p>\n
He said Pharmac received an application for permethrin (A-Scabies) to treat scabies under a practitioner supply order in August 2025. <\/p>\n
The application is currently at the clinical assessment stage of Pharmac\u2019s application process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2018So mentally draining\u2019 Julie said she was not a typical sufferer, with most media coverage focused on scabies…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5837,3221,8414,5988,3011,296,194,6187,4188,3234,117,111,43,139,79327,69,1523,4517,26520,242960,19554,165,8229,270221,5977,80],"class_list":["post-550430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-battle","tag-battling","tag-couple","tag-families","tag-four","tag-into","tag-kiwi","tag-lives","tag-living","tag-months","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nightmare","tag-nz","tag-over","tag-past","tag-pushed","tag-scabies","tag-taken","tag-their","tag-they","tag-treatmentresistant","tag-which","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}