The Silent Plagues of Poor Children in the Rowan-Salisbury Schools: Lice, Scabies, Bedbugs, and Ringworm

RFP Staff/CDC

♦ Seldom spoken about in the Rowan-Salisbury Schools is the uncomfortable topic of body parasites not uncommon among our school system’s many poor and homeless children sometimes living in less than hygienic conditions. Many citizens understand that an estimated 60% or more children, attending classes in the Rowan-Salisbury School System, are on free or reduced school lunch programs. A higher percentage of poor children on free or reduced school lunches attend schools inside the boundaries of Salisbury, N.C. Here in Salisbury is the largest homeless shelter yet constructed in the state of North Carolina and an abundance of public housing to assist the city’s many poor.

This article’s featured photo above is a ringworm infestation.

The “Silent Plague” of body parasites, encountered among our school age poor, is common to school children dwelling in urban poverty in such cities as Camden, N.J., Detroit, East Saint Louis, Newark, and Chicago. Poverty and body parasites go hand-in-hand. So it should come as no surprise that Salisbury, N.C. with its “soaring” 25% poverty would have students suffering from the parasitic big four: Scabies, lice, bedbugs, and ringworm all highly communicable forms of parasitism.

Let’s go to the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) valuable website for the identification, diagnosis, and treatment of Scabies, lice, bedbugs, and ringworm.

SCABIES

http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/scabies/

LICE

http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/lice/

http://www.rss.k12.nc.us/school-health-lice-manual

BEDBUGS

http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/bedbugs/

http://pestcontroldirectory.net/bed-bug-removal/north-carolina/rowan-county

RINGWORM

http://www.cdc.gov/healthypets/diseases/ringworm.html

Scabies burrows: below