Information about Head lice.pages

FA C T S
• It feeds only on human blood, approximately 5
times per day. The “biting” is not painful.
• Females out number males in the ratio 4:1 and lay
6-8 eggs daily.
• Eggs are firmly glued to strands of hair close to
the scalp, preferring temperature of 30 - 31°C
which is favourable to incubation. Therefore, it does
not matter whether hair is short or long. Shaving
off the hair is not an acceptable treatment for head
W H AT D O L I C E
I N F O R M AT I O N A N D
LOOK LIKE?
PREVENTION OF
• A head louse is a tiny 6
legged insect which is between
the size of a pin-head and a
sesame seed.
• It is greyish brown in colour.
• The adult louse lives for
lice infection.
about one month.
• Live eggs are skin coloured and very difficult to
• Each leg ends with a claw,
see.
• The incubation period is 7 - 8 days and within 10
days of hatching, the louse becomes a mature adult
and is able to mate.
• Nits are empty egg cases. After a louse has
hatched the empty egg case becomes white. If you
which grasps the hair,
enabling swift movement
close to the scalp.
• It does not walk on the scalp
have nits it does not always mean that you have a
and cannot jump or fly and
current head lice infection. Nits remain stuck to the
has difficulty walking on flat
hair and grow out as the hair grows, at a rate of
about 1 cm per month.
• You only have head lice if you can find a living,
moving louse (not a nit).
surfaces.
HEAD
LICE
Information on Head Lice Infection
• Lice will live on hair that is dirty or
• Most head louse infections are
clean, short or long, adult or child. Short
asymptomatic, but about one third of cases
hair may make it easier for them to get
experience itching. The itching is due to
from one head to another.
sensitisation.
• High standards of personal hygiene do
• For a first infection, it can take up to 8
not necessarily prevent head lice infection.
• The method of transmission (person to
weeks for itching to start; with subsequent
lice eggs (nits) living on hair
person spread) is walking from head to
head. The heads must touch for a duration
• Lice cannot hop, jump, fly or be
of at least one minute or more.
drowned. Should a louse be found on a
• Head lice infection is not highly
contagious, taking time to spread through
a population. It is much less infectious
than some other common infections in
children, such as chickenpox and impetigo.
hat, collar, pillow, chair back etc it will
infections itching will occur sooner.
• Sometimes the appearance of a rash at
the back of the neck is the first indication
of infection.
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either be a dead louse or a damaged louse
that is too weak to hang on to the hair.
Adult lice can live apart from humans for
only a short period of time; therefore it is
rare for infection to be caught in this way.
• Lice do not keep still and move very
rapidly when disturbed e.g. when
undertaking detection combing.
Primary Infection caused by lice
HOW TO FIND HEAD LICE
Many lice do not cause an itch, so
you have to look carefully to find
them. Head lice are found on the
Step 1 Comb
Step 4 Look on the tissue and on
with any type of
the comb for lice and eggs.
hair conditioner
hair itself and move to the scalp to
on to dry,
feed. Louse eggs (also called nits)
brushed
are laid within 1.5 cm of the scalp
(detangled) hair.
and are firmly attached to the hair.
Step 5 Repeat the combing for every
part of the head at least four or five
times.
They resemble dandruff, but can’t
be brushed off. Lice can crawl and
hide. The easiest and most effective
way to find them is to follow these
steps:
Step 2 Now comb sections of the
hair with a fine tooth, head lice
comb.
Step 3 Wipe the conditioner from
the comb onto a paper towel or
If lice or eggs are found, the hair
should be treated. If the person has
been treated recently and you only
find empty hatched eggs, you may
not have to treat, as the empty eggs
closeup of lice egg (nit)
could be from a previous episode.
T R E AT M E N T
PREVENTION
Treating head lice involves removing
Check your child’s head regularly with
lice and eggs from the hair. There
comb and conditioner. There is no
are two ways you can do this:
research to prove that chemical or herbal
1.Using a head
therapies can prevent head lice.
lice lotion or
shampoo.
!
!
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2. Using the conditioner and comb
method (described under ‘finding
head lice’) every second day until
there have been no live lice found
for ten days.
You should see your family doctor
first for advice.
1.04.2013