There was one case of scabies at the St Paul’s Bay Primary School in the past days and all necessary steps were taken by the health authorities, Education Minister Evarist Bartolo said.

Replying to a parliamentary question by Nationalist MP Censu Galea, the minister said that when such cases arose, one should not continue to alarm the people. Although he was not a medic, Mr Bartolo said, he did not want to be an alarmist since this was nothing similar to Ebola.

Mr Galea said that the intention behind his question was not to alarm people but to calm them down because there was talk by parents that they would not be sending their children to school.

Scabies is a contagious skin condition caused by tiny mites called Sarcoptes scabiei.

These mites burrow into the skin, then breed and lay their eggs, causing a rash and intense itchiness.

Sufferers of scabies rarely know they have the condition until a number of weeks after initial infection.

The mite is transmitted from one person to the other through close contact and anyone can get infected.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.