• Question: If you fell over and scrapped your knee and you had a wound there for a couple of days and then it started to scab over . Well are scabs bad because they form over the wound and create a layer of bacteria underneath.

    Asked by huntsop to Jen, Jill, Mel, Phil, Stef on 6 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Stefan Piatek

      Stefan Piatek answered on 6 Mar 2013:

      Besides being itchy and wanting to pick them scabs are very useful. Our skin is essentially a barrier to stop things getting inside of our body so we don’t get infections. When this is broken, platelets (part of the blood) form a clot at the break and then lead to a scab.

      The scab seals off this new entrance to the body like using polyfiller on your wall. It’s not perfect but its quick and most of the time it keeps enough of the nasties out that your body can fight off the rest without any problems. You’re very right though, sometimes you can have an infection underneath which can be quite nasty. Generally scabs are great for helping us maintain our barrier (and good fun to pick at).

    • Photo: Phil Rice

      Phil Rice answered on 6 Mar 2013:

      Scabs are GOOD; espeially the tasty ones! You also see scabd on trees as well when they have suffered a wound. The scab is formed from sterile proteins in your blood so once you have washed the area or disinfected it, there should be no or very bacteria to set up an infection. Disinfection is very important; 150 years ago, people would die from a simple scracth or small punture wound. It even can happen today but this is much rarer now.

    • Photo: Jennifer Paxton

      Jennifer Paxton answered on 6 Mar 2013:

      They might not be very pretty, but scabs are actually very good! If you were to fall over and scrape your knee, the first thing to happen is that you might bleed a bit, but then it will eventually stop. This is because you have special molecules in your blood that help it clot (stick together) and this is helping to create a barrier to all the germs and nasty things that we don’t want getting into our bodies. It is important to clean a wound to get rid of any bacteria that might be in there, but as long as the scab is still there, your protection from any other bacteria is there. So although it is tempting to pick away at your scabs…. you will be opening up that protective barrier again and maybe introducing infection to the area!

    • Photo: Melissa Brereton

      Melissa Brereton answered on 10 Mar 2013:

      Well the scab is actually a good thing as it prevents bacteria from the outside getting into the body! It creates a waterproof barrier over the wound to allow all the cells in your immune system to come along and clean up the wound quickly. A scab is the body’s natural way of healing and it caused by the blood clotting. Some people have a really rare disease called haemophilia where their blood doesn’t clot. This is a big problem for them because when they cut themselves, they cannot stop bleeding and they do not form scabs. It is really serious and they can die from it if the cut is very severe and they are not taken to a hospital quickly. So, although scabs do create a layer of bacteria underneath, it actually provides a safe environment for the body to heal!

Comments