Health
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Head Lice
Head lice infection is very common. It has been estimated that up to one in every 10 children in school acquires head lice at some time. In one study, the estimated annual cost of head lice infestations in the United States was nearly $1 billion dollars.
Head lice are insects that live in the hair and on the scalp of humans, they cannot jump and do not have wings so cannot fly. They are obligate parasites, which means that they cannot survive without us, feeding only on human blood, which they take from the blood vessels in the scalp.Head lice spend their entire life on the hairy part of the head. The six-legged, wingless adult head louse is about the size of a sesame seed and ranges in color from tan to gray. Each of its six legs ends in a claw that is used to grasp the hair shaft. While head lice can crawl relatively quickly, they cannot hop, fly, or jump.
In addition to having the symptoms listed above, children with head lice will have gray or reddish brown live head lice scurrying around their scalp. Lice are small, about the size of a sesame seed, and although they don’t fly or hop, they can crawl very fast, making them hard to spot.The most common treatment is an over-the-counter or prescription cream, lotion, or shampoo. You put it on the skin or scalp to kill the lice and eggs. In some cases, you may need treatment a second time to make sure that all the eggs are dead. If two or more treatments don’t work, your doctor may prescribe a pill called ivermectin.The three main treatments for head lice are listed below, but no method is 100 per cent effective.You should only start chemical treatment if you find a live louse on your child’s head. If you only find the hatched and empty eggshells (nits), these may be the sign of a previous batch of lice that have already been eradicated.
