The National Pediculosis Association (NPA) encourages parents to work as a community during back-to-school and send their children to their classrooms free of pediculosis, a communicable disease. NEWTON, Mass., Sept. 1, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- September is National Head Lice Prevention Month! No matter what the school policy or other more pressing public health issues in the news – head lice infestations known medically as pediculosis, can be extremely challenging for the people who have them. The NPA encourages parents to work as a community during back-to-school and send their children into the classroom free of pediculosis, a communicable disease. Routine screening and early detection with a comb should be the parental "go to" prevention tool, striving always be …
Head lice can be a pesky problem
"I’m starting to see a few cases of head lice now that kids have been in school awhile. The critters are white and about the size of a sesame seed. They are known as "obligate ectoparasites." Obligate means they require a placental mammal host to survive (i.e. humans) and ectoparasites means they live outside the human body and need a host to survive. They do this by feeding on the host’s blood and can't live off of a body for more than a day or so. Lice are spread by direct contact of a person's head or hair with an infested individual or through sharing personal items such as hats, towels, brushes, helmets, hair ties or even car seat headrests. They do not jump or fly and are not transmitted by pets... Treatment of lice requires a lot of patience. There really is no substitute for …
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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New Studies Validate Old Wisdom
By Deborah Z. Altschuler “They use combing to validate an active infestation, quantify lice and nits by counting what the comb removes from their test subjects, as well as confirm and compare therapeutic efficacy.” The March 11, 2010 New England Journal of Medicine published a study comparing the use of a pesticide called malathion to the use of an oral antibiotic called ivermectin to determine the efficacy of each in treating children with head lice (pediculosis). http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/362/10/896 According to this report, head lice are universal human parasites affecting over 100 million people worldwide each year. The study was conducted on children who had already been treated with topical insecticides yet continued to have live lice. “Infestation was …