What Is Head Lice?

Head lice are small six-legged insects that feed on human blood and attach to your head and neck. Because each louse is roughly the size of a sesame seed, they are difficult to notice. Lice lay their eggs, known as nits, on hairs near the scalp, making them even more difficult to spot. They’re held in place by a glue-like material.

The most prevalent victims of head lice are young children, particularly those who attend day care, preschool, or primary school. Children of this age frequently play close together and come into contact with each other’s hair. Brushes, caps, hair clips, and other such items may also be shared. Adults who cohabit with children are also more likely to contract head lice.

What Causes Head Lice?

Lice are parasitic insects that feed on human blood, infecting the head, body, and even the pubic area. Each egg is firmly attached to the base of a hair shaft by a sticky material produced by the mother louse. The eggs hatch in six to nine days. Getting lice is as simple as coming into contact with lice or their eggs. Lice are unable to jump or fly. They propagate by way of:

• Body-to-body contact or head-to-head contact: This can happen when children or family members are playing together or interacting intimately.
• Furniture that has been polluted: It is possible to spread lice by lying on a bed or sitting in overstuffed, cloth-covered furniture that has recently been used by someone with lice. Off the body, lice can live for one to two days.
• The proximity of the items being kept: Infested clothing should not be stored in closets, lockers, or on side-by-side hooks at school, and personal things such as pillows, blankets, combs, and plush toys should not be stored in close proximity at home.

Symptoms of Head Lice

The most typical symptom of an infestation is itching. This is due to a reaction to louse saliva that causes an allergic reaction. Some people are allergic to louse bites and experience excruciating itching. Others are not allergic to the saliva or have developed a tolerance to it, resulting in little or no itching even after multiple infestations.

Because it might take this long to become sensitive, some people do not experience itching for the first 2 to 6 weeks of an infestation. As a result, the infestation may go undiscovered for a long time.

Other signs and symptoms could include:

• tingling or a feeling that something is moving in your hair
• irritation and sleeping problems
• scratching on the head which causes sores.
• lymph nodes or glands that are enlarged
• pink eye

Treatment Options for Head Lice

It’s only advisable that you get head lice treatment if you’ve established that you have an active infestation. To qualify treatment, the lice must be alive and crawling, or the lice eggs must be viable. However, it may be beneficial to treat people who share a bed with someone who is actively afflicted. There are various treatment options which include:

Medication Options

Over-the-Counter Medications

The initial line of defense against lice infestations is usually pyrethrin (Rid, A200 Lice Treatment) or permethrin (Nix). When using these medications, pay attention to the directions.

Lice have developed resistance to the chemicals in over-the-counter treatments in various parts of the country. If over-the-counter remedies are ineffective, your doctor may prescribe shampoos or lotions containing various chemicals.

Oral Medication

With two doses administered eight days apart, oral ivermectin (Stromectol) efficiently treats lice. This medicine is commonly used to treat infestations that have failed to respond to other therapies.

Topical Prescription Treatment

Benzyl Alcohol (Ulesfia)

Ivermectin (Sklice)

Malathion (Ovide)

Manual Treatment

Avoid using medicated lice treatments on babies and toddlers under the age of two months. If a newborn has head lice, you should manually remove the lice and lice nits with a fine-tooth lice comb after soaking and conditioning the child’s hair. This should be done every three to four days for the next three weeks after the last live louse has been found.

Alternative Treatment

• Head lice are treated with a variety of home or natural therapies, such as mayonnaise or olive oil, although there is little to no proof of their usefulness.
• Another treatment option is to use a specific machine that uses hot air to dehydrate head lice and their eggs. The machine is only available at professional lice treatment establishments and requires particular training.

How to Prevent Head Lice

You can make efforts to help avoid re-infestation in addition to treatment. Even though lice are unlikely to spread through exchanging personal items like hats, it’s still a good idea to avoid trading hair accessories, brushes, combs, and towels with someone who has a known current case of head lice. Other techniques to avoid getting lice and spreading it include:

Clean Items

Change and wash the infested person’s pillowcases, pyjamas, towels, and other objects that came into direct touch with their head in the 24 to 48 hours leading up to diagnosis. Make sure to  machine wash everything in hot, soapy water and then dry it on the hot cycle for at least 20 minutes.

Soak Brushes

Seal Items

Avoid Sprays

Helping Children Avoid Head Lice

• During play and other activities, instruct your child to avoid making direct head-to-head contact with classmates.
• Instruct your child to keep personal items like hats, scarves, coats, combs, brushes, hair accessories, and headphones to themselves.
• Tell your child to stay away from shared locations where multiple students’ hats and items are hanging on a common hook or kept in a locker.

Now that you Know…

With the right treatment, you can get rid of head lice. You may, however, re-infect yourself so it is important to reduce your risk by properly cleaning your home and, most importantly, avoiding direct contact with persons who have head lice until they’ve been treated. Although current evidence does not necessarily support this notion, it may be prudent not to share personal hygiene items with others to lower your chances of contracting head lice.