Demonstration of Sarcoptes scabiei

To the Editor.—  In a correspondence to this journal (Archives 113:1296, 1976), Dr Leon Goldman presented a new technique for the demonstration of the mite in suspected cases of scabies. It seems that the scraping technique is the most commonly used in the United States, and I understand that many fail in the demonstration with this method.At the International Conference on Scabies and Other Parasitoses in Minneapolis in May 1976, several experienced dermatologists confirmed that in most cases of scabies they were not able to demonstrate the mite and treatment was given only on clinical findings, even without the clear-cut demonstration of burrows.Goldman mentions in his correspondence that, "In some dermatological centers, at least in the past, it was required that the parasites had to be demonstrated." Is this condition sine qua non really left behind in the teaching centers in the United States? How are physicians then able