Information about Head lice.pages
Transcription
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. ! 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. ! ! ! 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