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Going to School with Carefully Combed Hair Takes on New Importance

September is National Head Lice Prevention Month: A Time to CombFirst! NEWTON, Mass. September 05, 2018 This fall, there is one more important reason for children to leave for school every day with their hair carefully combed. As schools relax their vigilance and allow children with head lice into the classroom, the nonprofit National Pediculosis Association (NPA) is urging parents to proactively use a quality lice and nit removal comb for early detection, so an infestation doesn’t catch them by surprise. The CombFirst! message is central to a year-long educational campaign sponsored by the NPA, which kicks off each September as National Head Lice Prevention Month. The NPA is a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to setting the highest possible public health standards, …

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Keeping Children Safe: September Is National Head Lice Prevention Month!

National Pediculosis Association Recommends Parents Be Informed Before Outbreaks Occur. Newton, MA August 23, 2018. NEWTON, Mass. (PRWEB) August 23, 2018 -- Parents naturally put their children first, constantly seeking information to keep their families nurtured and safe. But when it comes to head lice, they’re often confronted with conflicting guidance and misinformation—leading them to make potentially risky and ineffective treatment decisions. Among the hazards are serious health effects from repeated exposure to various pesticide remedies, treatment failures, lice resistance, and chronic infestations that make parents and children feel desperate and overwhelmed.That’s why September is National Head Lice Prevention Month, the beginning of a year-long awareness campaign …

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Should Kids with Lice Stay in Class?

The Doctors discuss whether children with lice should be allowed to remain in class or be kept at home until cleared? They are joined by retired school nurse Deborah Pontius and Deborah Altschuler, President of National Pediculosis Association, to weigh in on the subject. Deborah Pontius says, "The evidence just doesn't support excluding children from school for either nits or lice." She says while she was a nurse, she found that other children in the classroom with kids with lice were not getting them. "This action of excluding children and checking every child in a classroom just isn't supported by research [and] isn't supported by evidence," she contends. Adding,"Extremely rarely is lice actually transmitted in school." She says she feels that children should not be removed from the …

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Parents: Urge the FDA to Amplify Safe Combing Alternatives To Pesticide-Based Lice Treatments

Attention, parents: Protect your children from the potentially harmful pesticide-based shampoos and treatments that are commonly used to try to eliminate head lice. The National Pediculosis Association (NPA) is urging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to provide more details on safe alternative combing products. Parents who want to lend their support to the cause have until 11:59 pm Eastern Time Monday, August 6 to provide comments at https://www.regulations.gov/docket?D=FDA-2018-P-0599. …

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NPA Urges the US Food and Drug Administration to Recognize Safer Head Lice Treatment Choices

The National Pediculosis Association® (NPA) has submitted a petition to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requesting that it update its website and other educational materials so that combing with well-designed nit-removal combs like the LiceMeister® is presented as a safe and effective option for the treatment of children with head lice. Doing so would give more parents access to the critical information and guidance necessary to make informed decisions. There are many children for whom a non-chemical treatment for lice is required. Read full release. | Read the petition. | Read the FDA's acknowledgement of the petition. The NPA’s petition is consistent with the FDA’s goal to empower consumers and patients to make informed and effective health decisions, as stated by …

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A Better Picture of Head-Lice Transmission, Aided by Math and a Fine-Toothed Comb

"As evidence mounts that head lice are developing resistance to widely used insecticides, the fight against lice is helped by a better understanding of how they spread—and how to stop them. Controlled studies of transmission of head lice (Pediculus humanus capitis) in real-world settings aren’t exactly feasible, though, because the most accurate investigation would require somehow tracking the detailed movements of, say, a classroom full of children as well as the individual lice those children might be carrying. So, researchers must find different ways to get at the same kind of information." See full article at Entomology Today. …

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Human Louse and Disease Articles prior to 2019

The Human Louse and Disease Recent Studies Support the Critical Need for Preparedness and Lice Prevention "One of the greatest achievements in the war which the medical sciences have waged against epidemic diseases is the discovery that, during times of quiescence in interepidemic periods, the potential agents of disease may smolder in human carriers, in domestic animals - especially rodents, - and in insects." Hans Zinsser - Rats, Lice and History Pediculosis capitis is the medical term for an infestation of head lice. It is itself an infectious disease. Head lice are highly communicable parasites specific to humans. They require blood meals to survive and have been associated with various infections including rickettsial diseases. Newer technologies are validating research …

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Color Me Healthy

More than just a tool to keep children occupied, coloring books provide an entertaining, friendly, and interactive medium that can simplify otherwise complicated health-related subjects. Important public-health issues are conveyed to children in coloring books in a way that can transform an unpleasant subject into an engaging learning opportunity. For instance, it is uncommon to associate the word “cute” with “lice,” however the The Latest Greatest Coloring Book About Lice, a collection item in the National Library of Medicine’s (NLM) historical Prints & Photographs collection, achieves such a feat. This 10 page teaching tool produced by The National Pediculosis Association (NPA) contains whimsical drawings of lice in a story about where they live, how they move, and how people can get …

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A creepy-crawly head bug one Fargo mother can’t rid her daughter of

"It's a bug one Fargo mother can't shake and it’s costing her roughly $600 dollars to rid her daughter of head lice. Parent Jamie White had heard of other kids complaining about lice in the classroom. We spoke to the family who said this is in fact where her child keeps picking up the bug. They want to see more preventative efforts taken." -- Source: Valley News …

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Ms. Altschuler profiled on Amazing Women Everywhere

"Deborah Z. Altschuler is president of the National Pediculosis Association (NPA), a mother, grandmother, and advocate for all children. She has worked tirelessly for years educating parents , professionals and the general public on the safe way to treat headlice, without exposing children to toxic pesticides. The LiceMeister comb is the safest non toxic way to treat head lice. In fact in 2011 the Stockholm Convention identified the LiceMeister comb as a POPs-free product and featured it at a global meeting of more than 150 countries, as the safe, non-chemical treatment choice over the use of lindane and other pharmaceutical applications using insecticides." -- Source: Amazing Women Everywhere …

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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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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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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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