Safely screen, detect, and remove head lice and nits.

You are here: Home / Head Lice – In the Press

New Medical Device Keeps Lice Out Of Everyone’s Hair

The Chemical Approach To Head Lice Has Failed. BOSTON, March 13 /PRNewswire/ -- It's almost impossible to find a community in the U.S. that doesn't have kids with lice. The non-profit National Pediculosis Association (NPA) says this fact adds to the scientific evidence that the chemical approach to controlling head lice has failed. The continual reliance on pesticide treatments has enabled the louse to become well established among the childhood population. The NPA advises parents that the safe alternative is to screen often and manually remove lice and nits (lice eggs). To help the millions of families affected by this communicable childhood disease, the NPA has developed the LiceMeister(R) comb, and is making it available to communities through local pharmacies. The February …

New Medical Device Keeps Lice Out Of Everyone’s HairRead More

Thorough Combing Emerges as the Treatment of Choice for Children with Head Lice

August 4, 1999 - In the newest issue of the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, W. Steven Pray, Professor of Non-Prescription Products and Devices at Southwestern Oklahoma State University, writes about resistant lice and warns about the lack of safeguards for alternative products. He discusses the wide variety of commonly used chemical products and describes Lindane, a cyclodiene pesticide, as the most toxic pediculicide available. Given the inadequacies of a chemical approach to controlling head lice, Professor Pray recommends thorough combing as the emerging treatment of choice and instructs pharmacists to "shift in the new millennium to thorough combing with a highly effective comb such as the LiceMeister®." Professor Pray strongly advises against unproven head lice …

Thorough Combing Emerges as the Treatment of Choice for Children with Head LiceRead More

Therapeutic Research Center Addresses Head Lice

The Prescriber's Letter published by the Therapeutic Research Center and distributed to physicians and pharmacists, is one of the most widely read and respected health newsletters. In the March 1997 issue, the Prescriber's Letter had this to say about head lice: You'll see some unusual treatments for head lice… especially for persistent cases.Many parents complain about treatment failures with Nix® and other products.Researchers are starting to suspect resistance.Some physicians are resorting to new therapies… but this is causing LOTS of controversy. For example, some recommend leaving Nix® on for 4 to 8 HOURS … instead of 10 minutes. Sometimes even overnight under a shower cap. Or they prescribe Elimite® cream for head lice … and leave it on overnight too. Elimite® is five times …

Therapeutic Research Center Addresses Head LiceRead More

CHAPTER 2: THE ANATOMY OF PEDICULUS HUMANUS

EXTERNAL ANATOMY 1. General The general relation of the parts to one another is shown in figure 1. It will be seen that the head, thorax and abdomen are clearly separated from one another; that the thorax shows little external sign of segmentation; only seven abdominal segments are distinct. The insect is flattened dorsiventrally. There is one thoracic spiracle, which probably appertains to the prothorax. The leg of Pediculus, which is characteristic of that of Anoplura in general, is shown in figure 2; all parts of the leg are short and strong. The tibia is short and bears a blunt "thumb" on the inner side close to the apex; the thumb terminates in spines and hairs. The one-jointed tarsus is short and carries a single large claw, rough along its concavity. Between the thumb and …

CHAPTER 2: THE ANATOMY OF PEDICULUS HUMANUSRead More

Resistant Lice? A Crisis for the Kids

From the Progress Newsletter, Spring 1996. The National Pediculosis Association has issued an alert to warn American families. The NPA reports that a worst-case scenario is emerging, as head lice appear to be resistant to commercially available chemical treatments. With resistance to the prescription chemical lindane already documented, it is likely that the over-the-counter pediculicides have followed suit. Lice resistance to permethrin was anticipated in 1990 by doctors John D. Edman, Medical Entomologist and John M. Clark, Insecticide Toxicologist, both at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. For the past year, the NPA has been averaging 50 calls a day from parents and health professionals reporting product treatment failure. Frustrated parents have responded to persistent …

Resistant Lice? A Crisis for the KidsRead More

The Most Dangerous Medicine

Mothers have found that the cure can be worse than the complaint By Paula Lyons - Ladies Home Journal - June 1994 For years it was the most commonly prescribed treatment for two of the most vexing and distasteful problems of childhood, head lice and scabies. The treatment’s most recognizable brand name has been Kwell, though it is no longer manufactured under that name. Generically, it is known as lindane. And though it comes in lotion and shampoo form, lindane is actually a very strong pesticide. But parents rarely are aware of this, and they can learn too late that lindane can have the same effect on their children that it has on the insects they carry: In other words, it can attack and permanently damage the central nervous system. On June 10, 1993, Jean Nabors*, of Boise, …

The Most Dangerous MedicineRead More

Pediculosis Prevention Resolution Submitted to Congress

H.J. Res. 223 United States Conference of Mayors 1620 Eye Street, Northwest Washington, D.C. 20006 Telephone: (202)293-7330 April 8, 1985  The Honorable Barney Frank U.S. House of Representatives 1317 Longworth House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Congressman Frank, The U.S. Conference of Mayors enthusiastically supports the resolution you have introduced designating September 1985 as "Pediculosis Prevention Month."  As the enclosed policy statement demonstrates, we have serious concerns about the potential health and social implications of pediculosis. Please feel free to call me or the Conference staff if we can provide further assistance …

Pediculosis Prevention Resolution Submitted to CongressRead More

Brill’s Disease. IV. Study of 26 Cases in Yugoslavia

Department of Microbiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Mass.; Doboj, Grac'anica, Tuzla, and Sarajevo, Yugoslavia; and Department of Microbiology, Harvard School of Public Health. IN 1934 Zinsser defined Brill's disease as sporadic typhus occurring in the absence of lice among immigrants to the United States from the typhus-ridden areas of southeastern Europe.1 Subsequently, physicians in Switzerland,2 France,3' 4 England,5 and Portugal6 reported occasional cases of Brill's disease among immigrants and displaced persons from the typhus regions of Europe. There are no reports, however, that Brill's disease has been recognized as such in any area where typhus fever actually occurs in epidemics among the local population. If Brill's disease is indeed a recrudescence of typhus …

Brill’s Disease. IV. Study of 26 Cases in YugoslaviaRead More