The following morning, after a terrible night’s sleep, the patient was covered in a scab like rash and the itching continued. He saw his GP who thought this was a probable contact dermatitis and gave advice accordingly.
Over the next couple of months things went from bad to worse. The itching continued, he couldn’t sleep, the rash and scabs spread, and he became convinced he was infested with bugs. In fact, the patient was able to squeeze “bug stuff” out of the scabs for his GP to see! The GP took skin samples and sent them off to the microbiology lab, but no parasites were seen and nothing infectious grew.