Few procedures in the practice of medicine are more impressive to the patient than the personal demonstration of the causative agent of his disease. This demonstration should be done in the majority of cases of scabies. There is a sizable group of people, however, with atypical or minimal scabies for whom the clinical diagnosis is uncertain; for this group, suspected of having scabies, laboratory confirmation is most welcome and helpful. Friedman1 has correctly stressed that proving the diagnosis in cases of minimal scabies gives the physician and patient assurance and confidence in the correctness of the diagnosis. Proof of the diagnosis when possible is preferable to a therapeutic test with an acaricide.
The patient who doubts the diagnosis of scabies at first is easily convinced when he has viewed the offending mite microscopically. More frequently he will accurately and willingly carry out the treatment for himself and