Widow Says Husband Contracted Scabies in Hospital Before Death as Welsh Outbreak Grows

A woman whose husband died after contracting scabies while being treated in a Welsh hospital has described how the infection overshadowed his final weeks and left her unable to hold his hand without wearing protective gloves.

Kate Baxter's husband Paul, who was 90, suffered a stroke in December 2025 and died on 8 June. Four months before his death, he caught the highly contagious skin infestation at Glangwili Hospital in Carmarthen, according to his widow.

Kate, from Cwrt Newydd in Ceredigion, said the infection meant she was only able to touch her husband of more than 40 years while wearing rubber gloves during visits in his final days. She described the experience as deeply distressing, saying that holding someone's hand through a layer of protective equipment is "not good".

Scabies is caused by microscopic mites that burrow beneath the skin and spreads through close skin contact. It is not a condition caused by poor hygiene, but it spreads easily in environments where people live or are cared for in close proximity, including hospitals and care homes.

Paul's case developed into crusted scabies, a more severe form of the condition that can affect people whose immune systems are already weakened. Kate said her husband had also been suffering from pneumonia, but that the crusted scabies had left his immune system compromised.

Scabies is recorded as a secondary cause of death on Paul's death certificate. Kate said she was also told by the undertaker that a tag reading "environmental hazard" had been attached to her husband while his body was in the morgue, because the mites were still active on him. She said she never expected her husband to go into hospital with one illness and leave through the morgue described as a health hazard.

According to Kate, Paul first told her in February that he was experiencing itching. She said doctors initially believed the problem might be an allergic reaction to medication. She said it took 12 weeks and six days before he was diagnosed in May, by which point the infection had progressed to crusted scabies. People with that form of the condition can carry up to two million mites and eggs on their bodies.

Kate also contracted scabies from her husband and described the illness as dreadful. She said the itching felt as though it could not be relieved and that the skin was constantly painful. The symptoms were worse at night, when the mites are most active, and she described sudden sharp stabbing pains in her leg or back that seemed to spread. She called the experience distressing.

She said the infection cast a shadow over her husband's final weeks and robbed the couple of the quality of time they had left together. She believes that if Paul had not caught scabies, his immune system might not have been compromised and he might possibly have been able to fight off the pneumonia he eventually developed.

Before he was admitted to hospital, Kate described Paul as a very bright and funny man with an inquiring mind, even at the age of 90. She said he was great to be around and enjoyed life.

After her husband's death, Kate wrote to Hywel Dda health board to complain about how long it had taken to diagnose him. In his reply, health board chief executive Phil Kloer said no evidence had been identified that concerns about the rash were ignored or that there had been a failure to seek appropriate medical review. He also said the board was unable to determine with certainty whether the rash could have been prevented.

Kate said she was unhappy with the response and felt the health board had skated over the issues. She argued that doctors should have realised sooner that the problem was not simply a skin condition.

Hywel Dda health board has said it is taking extra measures to control the spread of scabies and is focused on keeping hospitals and healthcare settings as clean as possible. Its director of public health, Ardiana Gjini, said the board was working in partnership with other agencies, including Public Health Wales, to manage the situation.

The case comes amid a wider outbreak of scabies affecting hospitals in the Hywel Dda region. Glangwili Hospital's Steffan ward was closed in July to treat an outbreak, followed by the Cadog ward in September. Both have since reopened. The Teifi ward has remained closed since 21 September. This week the health board also closed two wards at Prince Philip Hospital in Llanelli because of scabies.

The health board confirmed that some treatments had been cancelled as a result of the ward closures. It said anyone affected would be contacted proactively as soon as it became clear that a scheduled appointment might need to be changed.

Latest published data for Wales shows more than 27,000 reported consultations through the Common Ailments Service for scabies last year, compared with 4,810 two years earlier. The figures point to a sharp rise in demand for help with the condition across the country.

The outbreak has raised questions about infection control in Welsh hospitals, particularly for elderly and vulnerable patients whose immune systems may already be under strain. Crusted scabies is particularly difficult to manage because those affected can carry very large numbers of mites, increasing the risk of transmission to staff, visitors and other patients.

For families like the Baxters, the consequences have been both medical and deeply personal, with a widow now questioning whether her husband's final weeks could have been different had the infection been identified and treated sooner.