Eeek! Head Lice!

It is time for school again and the same battle will be fought this year that is fought every year. Head lice. This is an epidemic and it doesn't matter if you take good care of your hair, clean or dirty, or long and short, all can be infected.

Head lice are just one of three kinds of lice that can infect humans. Head lice, body lice, and pubic lice are all related but have different characteristics. Head lice and body lice are similar in appearance but experts are not even sure if they are the same species. The head louse can stay on a person for their entire life the body louse is rare. The body louse can be found on people living in unsanitary, crowded conditions and where people wear the same clothes for days. Pubic lice (crabs) are transferred from the pubic area by intimate contact. Occasionally they can be carried in other ways.

Head lice are a problem especially for school children. It is the most common louse problem in the United States. They are spread by physical contact and you may find lice even in the most sanitary conditions. Six to ten million people in the United States have had head lice and 75 percent of them were children under the age of 12. Girls have more cases of infestation but that doesn't mean boys with short hair won't have lice. If one person is infested with lice, it is easy for the rest of the family to be infested. Caucasians, because of the shape of the hair shaft, have more problems with head lice.

If you suspect your child has head lice, what are you looking for? Lice are reddish-brown in color and they are wingless. Because they don't have wings, they are not able to jump from one person to another. The adult female louse measures only 1/8 inch and the male is 1/10 in length. Female lice lay from 50 to 150 eggs. These eggs are called nits and they are shiny white and less than half the size of the head of a pin. They glue themselves to the hair shaft close to the scalp. They hatch in about five to ten days and become nymphs. These little nymphs shed their skin three times and in three weeks they are adults. Heat and humidity affect the incubation period and their survival rate. Head lice love temperatures between 75 and 98.6 degrees and they can't live away from a host for more than 48 hours.

If the infestation is low, the lice are found above the ears and on the back of the scalp. If it is a high infestation of the lice, you will find the entire scalp covered and may find nits in the eyelashes! Head lice causes an itch and children who have lice typically suffer more from the itching at night, which interferes with sleep. If the child scratches where they are itching, they may develop a secondary infection and this may make them even more uncomfortable.

If the infestation is extreme, a person will have secondary side effects and some of them may be severe. Chills, leg cramps, fatigue, and a rash on another part of the body may signal potential problems and a doctor should be consulted.