‘So prevalent it’s endemic’: The Solomon Islands wage war on a Victorian-era parasite

In Britain’s primary schools, nits are the infestation everyone worries about. But in the Solomon Islands they are fighting a very different microscopic mite.

The Pacific nation has one of the world’s highest rates of scabies, a parasitic infestation caused when tiny mites burrow into the skin and lay their eggs.

At best, the neglected disease triggers itching and a distinct, bumpy rash. At worst, it can lead to secondary bacterial infections, septicemia, heart disease and kidney problems.

Across the lush archipelago, roughly 20 per cent of people are infected. But it is children that are the worst hit.

“We’ve been to schools and found that 50 per cent of kids have scabies, in some places,” said Dr Susanna Lake, a manager at the World Scabies Program, adding that it stops children sleeping at night or concentrating in the classroom. “It’s just incredibly itchy… it has a significant impact on quality of life.”

But there is mounting optimism that the Solomons may soon “knock out” the disease.

In Britain’s primary schools, nits are the infestation everyone worries about. But in the Solomon Islands they are fighting a very different microscopic mite.

The Pacific nation has one of the world’s highest rates of scabies, a parasitic infestation caused when tiny mites burrow into the skin and lay their eggs.

At best, the neglected disease triggers itching and a distinct, bumpy rash. At worst, it can lead to secondary bacterial infections, septicemia, heart disease and kidney problems.

Across the lush archipelago, roughly 20 per cent of people are infected. But it is children that are the worst hit.

But there is mounting optimism that the Solomons may soon “knock out” the disease.