What happens is that in the first weeks of the disease, the body develops an actual sensitivity to the mites, their eggs and their feces. After this has happened the body also triggers an allergic reaction causing itching. The person infected can very well apply a cream as a treatment against the mites. After only a few days of proper treatment the mites and the itching subsides after a couple of weeks. It should be best to consult the doctor after the applying the treatment to be sure it is safe to return to work or schools. Patients must also make shore that the cream has been washed away by making thorough showers.

In some cases some of the eggs may sometimes escape the effect of the medicine, thus hatching and creating further problems for the person infected. With out proper treatment the mites will continue with the ravaging of the body. Like other diseases scabies does not go away on it's own. People usually do not get infected with scabies from animals but in case they do this is the only time that the scabies will go away on its own.

In some cases the scabies will reappear in people that had suffered from it in the past. In this cases the itching may actually begin right away. Because the body has already developed an allergic reaction to the mites, the re infection causes the symptoms to appear immediately. The treatment must also be applied this time in order to kill the mites, but cases have been seen where the allergic reaction alone of the body was enough to kill them and the eggs.

Risks of complications always exist. The most common problem that can occur is a bacterial infection of the skin, such as impetigo. This happens mostly in the cases when the skin has been scratched raw. Hair follicles may also become infected. To best treat the bacterial infection the patient must use proper antibiotics. Persistent scratching may actually determine the skin to become either thick or red and in some cases even scaly or shiny.

It is a rare condition to develop crusted scabies, a severe form of the disease. This type of scabies is most common in people who have weak immune systems. People with HIV have been known to be infested with thousands if not tens of thousands of mites, whereas a normal person would only have 10 to 15 of them.

Because of close and prolonged skin contact, some people are more likely to develop this. Sexually active young people, people who work in institutions such as nursing homes, those who live in crowded conditions and children from developing countries.