Possible scabies outbreak still being investigated

By Karen McNew
WSLS10 Anchor
Published: July 2, 2008

We first told you about a possible scabies outbreak in salem at the Virginia Veterans Care Center in Salem Tuesday night.

New Wednesday evening : Two people from the Roanoke Health Department were at the facility this afternoon to help administrators figure out the source of the rashes they are seeing.

Bill Van Thiel late this afternoon told WSLS, “About 25 people have the rash.”

They have done three scraping tests that have come back negative for scabies.  However, he says they are treating the rashes as scabies just in case.

We have also learned the health department is working to trace the rash.  The health department hopes to figure out how it got into the building and see if it came from a visitor or an employee.

There are 240 patients at the Virginia Veterans Care Center.

Link to information about scabies from the Virginia Department of Health