Head Lice

Head lice are wingless insects that live on people's heads and feed on their blood. Head lice mainly spread by direct contact with the hair of a person infested with lice. Head lice move by crawling; they cannot hop or fly. Adult lice can live on a person's head for about 30 days. However, they will die within two days if they fall off a person and cannot feed.

The most common way to get head lice is by head-to-head contact with a person who already has head lice. This contact can be common among children playing at places like school or the home. Getting head lice is not related to cleanliness of you or your environment. SOURCE

Symptoms

Having head lice is not a serious medical condition. They do not spread disease. The symptoms are:

• Tickling feeling in the hair
• Frequent itching
• Sores from scratching

Identification

An adult is called a louse and is about the size of a sesame seed. The eggs, called nits, are even smaller - almost like a dandruff flake. Lice and nits are easiest to detect at the neckline and behind the ears.

Avoiding Lice

Lice infestations are spread most commonly by close person-to-person contact. Dogs, cats, and other pets do not play a role in the transmission of human lice. Lice move by crawling; they cannot hop or fly. Lice are fragile, and the chances of being passed on hats and combs are low. Stray lice that fall off a head are either injured or dying and incapable of causing a new infestation. Although schools, day care centers, etc. are often blamed for head lice outbreaks, it is the family unit that maintains cases leading to outbreaks in schools.

Treatment

Both over-the-counter and prescription medications are available for treatment of lice infestations. Follow instructions and avoid over treatment.

Head Lice Information for Schools

RIDOH does not recommend sending students with head lice infestation home early from school. Students with lice can go home at the end of the day, be treated, and return to class after beginning appropriate treatment. Nits may stay in hair after treatment, but successful treatment will kill crawling lice.

Both the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the National Association of School Nurses (NASN) advocate to discontinue "no-nit" policies (a child being free of nits before returning to school) for the following reasons:

• Many nits are more than ¼ inch from the scalp and are unlikely to hatch to become crawling lice, or may in fact be empty shells (i.e., casings).
• Nits bond to hair shafts and are very unlikely to transfer to other people.
• Unnecessary days off cause a burden to the students, families, and communities, and far outweighs the risks associated with head lice.
• Misdiagnosis of nits is very common during nit checks conducted by nonmedical professionals.