TY - GEN T1 - Scabies community prevalence and mass drug administration in two Fijian villages AU - Haar, Karin AU - Romani, Lucia AU - Filimone, Raikanikoda AU - Kishore, Kamal AU - Tuicakau, Meciusela AU - Koroivueta, Josefa AU - Kaldor, John M. AU - Wand, Handan AU - Steer, Andrew AU - Whitfeld, Margot AB - Background: Scabies has been estimated to affect approximately 300 million people worldwide each year. Scabies rates are high and pose a significant public health problem in Fiji. Community-based comparison treatment trials have not been undertaken. We estimated scabies prevalence and compared the efficacy and tolerability of mass drug administration (MDA) of benzyl benzoate lotion (BB) or oral ivermectin (IVM) in two villages in Fiji. Methods: A prospective MDA trial was undertaken in two Fijian villages, comparing three daily applications of BB with single dose IVM or permethrin cream for those aged under two years. The therapies were offered to all community members regardless of the presence of scabies or its symptoms. The difference in prevalence was measured before and after the intervention and absolute risk reduction (ARR) and relative risk (RR) calculated. Results: In the BB group, there were 572 eligible participants, of whom 435 (76%) enrolled and 201 (46%) returned for follow-up. In the IVM group, there were 667 eligible participants, of whom 325 (49%) enrolled and 126 (39%) returned. Scabies prevalence was lower after the intervention in both groups. It fell from 37.9 to 20.0% (ARR 18.0%; RR 0.52) in the BB group and from 23.7 to 9.5% (ARR 14.2%; RR 0.40) in the IVM group. Conclusions: Our study provides proof of principle that MDA for scabies can reduce scabies prevalence at the community level, and that there was no significant difference in this trial between BB and oral IVM. KW - Humans KW - Risk Assessment KW - Female KW - Male KW - Adolescent KW - Adult KW - Middle Aged KW - Young Adult KW - Time Factors KW - Prevalence KW - Child Preschool KW - Child KW - Developing Countries KW - Treatment Outcome KW - Severity of Illness Index KW - Benzoates/administration & dosage KW - Chi-Square Distribution KW - Confidence Intervals KW - Dose-Response Relationship KW - Drug KW - Drug Administration Schedule KW - Fiji/epidemiology KW - Follow-Up Studies KW - Ivermectin/therapeutic use KW - Scabies/diagnosis KW - Scabies/drug therapy KW - Scabies/epidemiology KW - 610 Medizin PY - 2013 LA - eng PB - Robert Koch-Institut VL - 53 IS - 6 DO - 10.1111/ijd.12353 ER -