Department stores | The itch cream intended for horses started selling too well in Puuilo

Vantaa A special phenomenon has been encountered in the Puuilo department store in Porttipuisto.

“Almost every day someone comes to ask if there is Bionix and where to find it,” a salesperson in the pet department Simba Aunola tells.

It is an itch cream intended for horses, which has developed another, unofficial purpose. People use it to treat their own scabies.

Scabies is an annoying skin disease caused by a microscopic scabies mite that lives under the skin. A tick parasitic on the skin causes severe itching in different parts of the body. The tick is spread, for example, through sex, within the same household and in daycare centers.

Scabies should primarily be treated with permethrin cream available from a pharmacy or tablets prescribed by a doctor. However, it seems that many are now resorting to a cheaper substitute.

“The shelves are pretty much empty every week. It can be ordered in batches of more than 20 bottles, so that it is enough even for a while,” says Aunola.

HS interviewed dermatologist about the phenomenon From Maria Huttus About the bee. He does not recommend horse medicine for human use.

“In no way can horse solution replace recommended evidence-based treatment. But if someone ends up using it now, I don't see any risk in itself when you look at the product's list of contents,” says Huttunen.

Bionix for horses has not been tested on human skin, and its use is not controlled by medical authorities. According to Huttunen's information, its active ingredient, benzyl benzoate, has not been evaluated much in the treatment of scabies in research. Instead, the permethrin and ivermectin used in Finland are more researched, says Huttunen.

So it is not entirely clear how much benefit the use of the substance has in the treatment of human scabies.

“Yes, we know that benzyl benzoate in itself is widely used specifically for parasitic infections. It is used to treat lice and ringworm.”

In Bionix, the horse's itch medicine, the active ingredient is benzyl benzoate, which in Finland is not approved for the treatment of scabies except with a special doctor's order. On the other hand, in other European countries, such as Sweden and Germany, the substance is also available for humans from pharmacies.

In wood joy Strange turns have been noticed in the sales of Bionix cream recently.

The cream is typically used to treat summer rash and itching in horses. However, at the end of the summer, the department store's pet department began to pay attention to the fact that Bionix was still being asked, even though autumn was already coming.

It didn't seem to be just for horse use.

“Usually after the end of the summer, horse people reduce their purchase of Bionix. But this fall it didn't stop. During the winter this has only gotten worse. It feels like it's being used in larger quantities all the time.”

Several internet forums have also recently discussed whether scabies could be treated with Bionix. That's probably where many people got their inspiration to head to Puuilo.

The reason the public in Finland has talked about the beginning of the year. Institute of Health and Welfare (THL) the statistic According to As recently as 2020, fewer than 10,000 cases of scabies were diagnosed.

The condition is not dangerous, but if the treatment is not successful at once, getting rid of scabies can be expensive.

Scabies is treated with over-the-counter permethrin cream and, if necessary, ivermectin tablets prescribed by a doctor. One tube of ointment costs around 31–40 euros at the pharmacy, and tablet treatments are not cheap either. You can get about a liter of Bionix for the same money.

In practice, a lot of money can be spent on medical treatment for scabies, because it is good to repeat the scabies application twice – and if there are several people living in the same household, everyone has to be treated.

The scabies epidemic has even caused Finns to steal expensive scabies creams. In January, HS reported how a pharmacy in Tampere had had to put anti-wrinkle creams behind the counter due to theft.