World Scabies Program

Project status: Active

Research area: Infection, Immunity and Global Health > Tropical Diseases

The World Scabies Program is dedicated to reducing the impact of scabies and its complications on children and families using public health approaches that target whole populations.

The program equips low and middle-income countries around the world with the tools and the resources to detect, monitor and eliminate scabies in affected communities.

Visit the World Scabies Program website

The program equips low and middle-income countries around the world with the tools and the resources to detect, monitor and eliminate scabies in affected communities.

Visit the World Scabies Program website

The program equips low and middle-income countries around the world with the tools and the resources to detect, monitor and eliminate scabies in affected communities.

Visit the World Scabies Program website

What is scabies?

Scabies is the third most common neglected tropical disease in the world, affecting about 455 million people every year, with the greatest impact occurring in scabies in children. Scabies can lead to devastating social and health outcomes. It interrupts sleep, reduces quality of life, and often leads to skin infections that can cause life-threatening infections and conditions, including kidney failure and heart disease.

Scabies is a disease of inequality affecting people living in crowded, impoverished conditions, and are widespread in some disadvantaged communities, including remote communities of northern Australia and Pacific Island Nations. Our program is dedicated to reducing the burden of child scabies and its complications for families in these communities.

We're wiping out scabies worldwide

The World Scabies Program is working with governments and partners to eliminate scabies as a public health problem. This program aims to:

put scabies control on national and global agendas
implement community wide treatment strategies
strengthen health systems to monitor and manage scabies.

The World Scabies Program is collaborating with the Ministries of Health in Fiji, Solomon Islands and Kiribati on national scabies control programs, including nation-wide mass drug administration campaigns and health systems strengthening projects.

The World Scabies Program connects with other countries and programs interested in eliminating scabies as a public health problem to provide technical guidance and support.

This is the first global program dedicated to the elimination of scabies as a public health problem and is possible thanks to funding by the Macquarie Group Foundation 50th Celebration Awards and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

View Professor Andrew Steer talk about the World scabies elimination program

On 2019, Professor Andrew Steer, Director of Infection, Immunity and Global Health, was thrilled to receive $10 million in funding from Macquarie Group's 50th Anniversary Award to lead a global program to wipe out scabies.

Information for participants

Key elements of the World Scabies Program are:

support governments and partners to scale-up of mass drug administration strategies for scabies
increase global awareness on the impact of scabies 
advocate for affordable and reliable access to effective treatments
support governments to establishing scabies control programs
strengthen health system capacity to manage and monitor the disease 
partner with communities to reduce the impact on families and livelihoods 
contribute to mapping of global populations affected by scabies
raise awareness of scabies as a public health problem

Get involved

The World Scabies Program is keen to connect with other countries, and programs interested in eliminating scabies as a public health problem. Contact us or see our website for more information.

World Scabies Program website