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Schools ease up on head lice policies, bugging some parents

Reprint from New York Daily News (via Associated Press), November 2013. Schools across the country are no longer sending home 'lice notes' to parents or requiring kids with lice to stay home from school. Nurses say the notes cause unnecessary panic, while some parents complain about their kids being exposed. Some parents are scratching their heads over less restrictive head lice policies that allow children with live bugs in their hair to return to the classroom for the rest of the day. Above, over the counter products for treating lice. Some parents are scratching their heads over less restrictive head lice policies that allow children with live bugs in their hair to return to the classroom. And some school nurses are no longer sending home the dreaded "lice note" to other …

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Description of Lentistivalius philippinensis, a new species of flea (Siphonaptera, Pygiosyllomorpha, Stivaliidae), and new records of Ascodipterinae (Streblidae) on bats and other small mammals from Luzon, The Philippines

"Each mammal was subjected to a thorough post-mortem visual examination: the face and ears were carefully searched and parasites were removed with forceps. In addition, the fur was systematically searched with the aid of a fine-toothed metal comb (LiceMeister®), National Pediculosis Association." Abstract: During May 2009 and July 2011, we collected 357 mammals and examined each for ectoparasites. Among the ectoparasites collected, a new species of flea was discovered. This new species, Lentistivalius philippinensis, is described from the male sex only. Two males were recovered from two specimens of the soricid Crocidura grayi Dobson in Municipality Maria Aurora, Aurora Province, Luzon, Philippines. Additional fleas included Thaumapsylla breviceps orientalis Smit, Thaumapsylla …

Description of Lentistivalius philippinensis, a new species of flea (Siphonaptera, Pygiosyllomorpha, Stivaliidae), and new records of Ascodipterinae (Streblidae) on bats and other small mammals from Luzon, The PhilippinesRead More

Markey to FDA: Stop Use of Toxic Chemical in Children’s Shampoo

Use of insecticide ‘lindane’ in treatment for lice could harm children, pollutes environment May 31, 2012 WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), senior member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, today called on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to halt the use of the insecticide lindane in pharmaceutical treatments for head lice in children. Despite research supporting its toxicity and ineffectiveness, the FDA continues to allow lindane to be used in prescription shampoos and lotions to treat cases of lice and scabies, overwhelmingly on children. Lindane has been found to cause skin irritation, seizures, and, in rare instances, even death. Infants and children are especially sensitive to the health risks posed by pesticides such as lindane because of their …

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Markey to FDA: Stop Use of Toxic Chemical in Children’s Shampoo

Use of insecticide ‘lindane’ in treatment for lice could harm children, pollutes environment WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), senior member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, today called on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to halt the use of the insecticide lindane in pharmaceutical treatments for head lice in children. Despite research supporting its toxicity and ineffectiveness, the FDA continues to allow lindane to be used in prescription shampoos and lotions to treat cases of lice and scabies, overwhelmingly on children. Lindane has been found to cause skin irritation, seizures, and, in rare instances, even death. Infants and children are especially sensitive to the health risks posed by pesticides such as lindane because of their developing …

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A crawling issue: Head lice treatments worse than the pest itself?

Parents often aren’t aware that some of the most prescribed and over-the-counter treatments can be harmful to children, an iWatch News investigation found. The Food and Drug Administration’s adverse event reports – collected anonymously from doctors, hospitals and others – detail cases where the pesticides in lice treatments have been involved in conditions ranging from headaches to death. See full article: "A crawling issue: Head lice treatments worse than the pest itself?" …

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The LiceMeister® comb featured as a lindane alternative at a global meeting of the Stockholm Convention!

In 2009, more than 150 governments agreed to list lindane in the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) for global elimination. However, they provided a temporary exemption for its use as a human pharmaceutical to address head lice and scabies. In response to this and other listings, the Stockholm Convention Secretariat launched a pilot project to help countries identify POPs-free alternatives to listed substances. Among various requirements, candidates had to submit products for testing by the Environmental Agency of Austria (EEA) to ensure they did not contain any of the 21 substances listed in the treaty. The project identified the LiceMeister® comb as a POPs-free product and will feature it at the global meeting of more than 150 countries April 25 - 29, …

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Barbara Glickstein and 25th Anniversary Podcasts

Barbara Glickstein's, (Public health nurse and Cofounder and Director of the Center for Health Media and Policy at Hunter College, City University of New York) interview with NPA's President Deborah Z Altschuler. The Barbara Glickstein podcast segments are part of an educational outreach project produced by Dan Gingold and Zach Kuperstein with LaShawn McGhee as editor. Podcast of Barbara Glickstein Interview (part 1) - (114MB)Podcast of Barbara Glickstein Interview (part 2) - (58MB)Download the 25th Anniversary Podcast! - Choose Podcast MP3 or Podcast iTunes …

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Activists in Public Health

By Deborah Z. Altschuler "With the exception of an occasional accolade for all the hard work that goes into being an activist, I generally find myself resenting the term." To paraphrase an old proverb, Citizen Activists will never disappoint you if you observe two rules: 1. Find out what they are; 2. Expect them to be just that. Many of us come naturally to advocacy in our role as parents. The activist in public health, however, can face a peculiar set of problems. Regarding Pediculosis, the consensus among contemporary physicians is that head lice are essentially a nuisance, leaving treatment protocols to the pharmaceutical manufacturers who market pediculicides for direct application to human skin. Although it can be a positive force, the pharmaceutical industry is not a proper …

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Brill-Zinsser Disease in a Patient Following Infection with Sylvatic Epidemic Typhus Associated with Flying Squirrels

Brill-Zinsser disease is a form of recrudescent epidemic typhus that occurs years or decades after primary typhus infection [1–4]. However, in the United States, improved sanitation and hygiene measures have largely eliminated the human body louse vector and epidemic typhus as public health concerns [1]. In addition, the availability of tetracycline-class antibiotics to effectively treat rickettsial infections has reduced the severity and duration of infections [1, 4].Although the classic louseborne cycle of Rickettsia prowazekii is not common in the United States, R. prowazekii infections are still sporadically reported. There have been at least 47 cases documented in humans since 1976 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, unpublished data) [5, 6]. Most of these cases had reported …

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