Scabies

I remember as a kid, I once got scabies and almost scratched the skin off my back.

One of those illnesses is scabies, which jumped from villagers to gorillas a few years ago in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. Other illnesses suspected of spreading from people to animals in recent years include measles, polio and intestinal parasites.

That rash is caused by scabies.

Scabies is caused by a mite.

The scabies mite burrows in skin.

Everyone ran away from me as if I had scabies.

Further, just as the discovery of the cause of scabies proved the absurdity of many of the old prescriptions for the prevention and treatment of that disease; so the discovery of the cause of splenic fever, and other such maladies, has given a new direction to prophylactic and curative measures against the worst scourges of humanity.