Lay summary
Our aim is to undertake a designed survey of scabies prevalence of Auckland children in educational institutions. This will be the first such survey for over 30 years. A key issue with the survey is the diagnosis of scabies, as clinical examination, even by a dermatologist experienced in the diagnosis is known to be insensitive. We will trial several methods of improving the diagnosis, including the collection of nuclear material for a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test and storing photos to use for training neural networks to recognise the features of scabies. We will undertake a designed survey of children attending educational institutions in the Auckland region in order to determine the prevalence of scabies and other related skin disorders. Scabies is known to increase the risk of a number of other commonly experienced diseases of childhood including: skin infections (impetigo, abscess, cellulitis), poststreptococcal glomerulonephritis (PSGN), and rheumatic heart disease.