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How Do I Get Tested For Scabies?

By Elizabeth Boskey, Ph.D., About.com

Updated: August 7, 2007

About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by our Medical Review Board

Question: How Do I Get Tested For Scabies?

Answer:

Scabies is normally diagnosed by the appearance of the skin rash it causes. Doctors can also take a scraping of the rash to test it for the presence of the scabies mites, their eggs, or their feces, but this test has a high occurrence of false negatives. You may still have scabies even if the skin scraping comes back negative.

A picture and description of a scabies rash can be found here.

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