![\"File](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0_The-girl-in-the-gray-jumper-scratches-her-hand-Scabies-Inflammation-of-the-skin-Disease-of-the-sk..jpeg\")
File image of person scratching their hand(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\nParents have been warnedFile image of person scratching their hand(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n
A college in Devon has issued a health alert after a confirmed outbreak of a Victorian-era disease has spread among a number of students.<\/p>\n
South Devon<\/a> College in Paignton<\/a> has told parents and carers that a handful of students have caught the highly contagious infection, scabies.<\/p>\n An email alert has been sent out to parents and carers warning of the outbreak, confirming that seven students have been diagnosed by a medical professional.<\/p>\n The college said: “We have been notified of seven confirmed cases of scabies amongst our student community.<\/p>\n “These cases have been diagnosed by a health professional”.<\/p>\n Scabies is caused by a mite which burrows into the skin, causing intense itching due to an allergic reaction to the parasite and its waste products.<\/p>\n The UKHSA said: “Scabies is a parasitic infection of the skin caused by the Sarcoptes scabiei mite, which buries into the skin and causes intense itching and rashes.<\/p>\n “Transmission from person to person occurs through close physical contact including, but not exclusively, sexual contact.<\/p>\n Scabies requires treatment to go away, and infections don’t pass with time.<\/p>\n Scabies is not usually a serious condition but it does need to be treated.<\/p>\n Anyone diagnosed with scabies should begin treatment, and all people in their household will also need to be treated at the same time, regardless of whether they have symptoms.<\/p>\n