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Genotyping of Human Lice Suggests Multiple Emergences of Body Lice from Local Head Louse Populations

You are here: Home / In the Press (all articles) / Human Louse and Disease / Genotyping of Human Lice Suggests Multiple Emergences of Body Lice from Local Head Louse Populations

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March 23, 2010 //  by NPA

Genetic analyses of human lice have shown that the current taxonomic classification of head lice (Pediculus humanus capitis) and body lice (Pediculus humanus humanus) does not reflect their phylogenetic organization. Three phylotypes of head lice A, B and C exist but body lice have been observed only in phylotype A. Head and body lice have different behaviours and only the latter have been involved in outbreaks of infectious diseases including epidemic typhus, trench fever and louse borne recurrent fever. Recent studies suggest that body lice arose several times from head louse populations…

We propose a hypothesis for the emergence of body lice, and suggest that humans with both low hygiene and head louse infestations provide an opportunity for head louse variants, able to ingest a larger blood meal (a required characteristic of body lice), to colonize clothing. If this hypothesis is ultimately supported, it would help to explain why poor human hygiene often coincides with outbreaks of body lice. Additionally, if head lice act as a reservoir for body lice, and that any social degradation in human populations may allow the formation of new populations of body lice, then head louse populations are potentially a greater threat to humans than previously assumed.

Wenjun Li, Gabriel Ortiz, Pierre-Edouard Fournier, Gregory Gimenez, David L. Reed,Barry Pittendrigh, Didier Raoult. Published: March 23, 2010. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0000641

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The NPA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated since 1983 to protecting children, their families and their environment from the misuse and abuse of prescription and over-the-counter pesticide treatments for lice and scabies.

Pediculosis (the medical term for an infestation of lice) provides a public health opportunity to teach important lessons about communicable disease preparedness, responsible personal behaviors, environmental health, and the importance of learning about pharmaceutical remedies before using them on our children and ourselves.

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