With the start of the new school year, September tends to be one of the months of the year with the highest number of cases of pediculosis or a lice infestation. When children return to school, there is often a spike in these infestations, which particularly affect children. It is therefore worth taking a few precautions during these first few days of the school year.
Whilst it is virtually impossible to prevent children aged 100% from catching head lice – given that at that age, children tend to move about a lot, play and are more likely to engage in physical contact – the AEMPS published a set of ten guidelines last week setting out the key recommendations for preventing, identifying and treating head lice infestations as children return to school.
Would you like to know what the Ten Commandments say? Back to school without head lice? Read on!
Back to school without head lice: What are the routes of infestation, and how do head lice infestations affect us?
The AEMPS information note, published on 1 September, is aimed at the general public. Therefore, use a informative vocabulary, moving away from the technical jargon usually used by the Agency.
The Ten Commandments Back to school without head lice: recommendations from the AEMPS sets out very clearly the consequences of pediculosis or lice infestations: «They cause severe itching and irritation of the scalp, and are very troublesome and recurrent. The most common sign of their presence is scratching of the head, which can be so intense that it often leads to erosive lesions in the infested area.».
With regard to the contagion, head lice usually reproduce by means of physical proximity between people. When two people are in close proximity, lice – wingless parasitic insects that attach themselves to the hair and suck blood from the scalp – are passed from one person to another. If the lice survive in the new hair, they will lay their eggs – known as nits – and parasitise their new host until they are eliminated using a lice-killing treatment (available from chemists).
Whilst it is true that head lice infestations are much more common amongst children, anyone, regardless of their age, can get head lice. As well as age, the main factors to bear in mind when dealing with head lice include both hair type and hairstyle: an infestation in long hair is not the same as one on a shaved head, where the infestation will be much quicker to detect and treat.
Finally, we believe it is important to point out that all those toiletries -hairbrushes, shower caps or swimming caps, etc.—which are used on the hair, as well as other items fashion or decorative items to be worn around the hair –A hat, a cap or hair ties – can all be a source of lice infestation. Therefore, in households where adults and children live together, it is a good preventative measure to have a children’s hairbrush as well as one for adults. Would you like to know more about prevention? You can check out the ten tips right below.
The AEMPS’s 10 recommendations:
- Teach children not to share hats, combs or towels
- Check the back of their necks and behind their ears
- Children with long hair must tie it back at ball parks or camps
- To make them aware of the importance of not scratching, in order to avoid injuries to the scalp
- Use the head lice treatments in accordance with the instructions for use. Then comb the hair with a nit comb or a fine-toothed, sturdy comb, which should be cleaned once the product has been applied
- Repeat the application of the head lice treatment after 7–10 days
- Do not mix different head lice treatments: it can be dangerous
- Do not use these products as a preventative measure, as this reduces their effectiveness
- They should only be used when live lice or nits are observed
- In the event of repeated infestations, use lice repellents
On ‘selfies’ and head lice infestations in teenagers and adults
In addition to the outbreaks of head lice typically seen in schools at this time of year – which mainly affect children – the AEMPS has also identified a rise in infestations among other age groups.
And they appear to have identified a possible new source of head lice infestation. According to the AEMPS, these infections are thought to be caused by the brief physical contact that occurs between people when taking a ‘selfie’.
This is the first time that the AEMPS has produced a list of ten guidelines on pediculosis, and we believe it is right that they have highlighted this new trend regarding lice infestations among adolescents and adults.