Is this scabies?

Every night for the past three weeks, my son who attends a highly-rated boarding school has been having severe itching and rashes on his arms and buttocks. The school nurse treated him with some drugs without any success. One of my friends thought that the disease could be scabies. I however disagreed with him since the school is very clean. How do I confirm the disease?

Habeeb (by SMS)

The best person to help confirm the disease is a doctor through a physical examination and laboratory tests. Most diagnoses of scabies infestation are made based upon the appearance and distribution of the rash and the presence of burrows. Whenever possible scabies should be confirmed by isolating the mites, ova or feces in a skin scraping. Scrapings should be made at the burrows, especially on the hands between the fingers and the folds of the wrist.  The extracted mite then can be identified by microscopy. Your son must have been infected with the disease in his boarding school.