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The Human Louse and
Disease
Recent Studies Support the Critical Need for Preparedness and Lice
Prevention
"One of the greatest achievements in the war which the medical sciences
have waged against epidemic diseases is the discovery that, during times
of quiescence in interepidemic periods, the potential agents of disease
may smolder in human carriers, in domestic animals - especially rodents,
- and in insects." Hans Zinsser - Rats, Lice and
History
As the threat of old and new communicable diseases emerge,
it is critical to set public health standards that not only encourage, but
also enable parents to send their children to school lice and nit free.
http://www.headlice.org/downloads/nonitpolicy.htm
The following is a partial list of both classic and recent
research studies involving louse-borne diseases. This list continues to
grow so check back. |
Head Lice and body lice: (pdf)
shared traits invalidate assumptions about evolutionary and medical distinctions |
The Louse
1939
PATRICK A. BUXTON, C.M.G., F.R.S.
Two chapters of a true classic. |
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Zinsser, Lice And
History
1990 Deborah Z.
Altschuler
Progress, National Pediculosis Association® |
Head
lice as vectors of disease
L. Lance Sholdt, PhD |
Bartonella quintana in Body Lice and Head Lice from Homeless Persons, San Francisco, California, USA
June 2009
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Apes, lice and prehistory
2009 by Robin A Weiss
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Emerging and re-emerging rickettsioses: endothelial cell infection and early disease events.
2008 Walker DH, Ismail N. |
First Molecular Evidence of Bartonella quintana in Pediculus humanus
capitis (Phthiraptera: Pediculidae), Collected from Nepalese children
2006
“B. quintana DNA sequences were detected in both head and body lice from two children as well as in body lice derived from two other children. These results demonstrate that head lice may also play a role in the transmission of trench fever.”
Toshinori Sasaki; Shree Kanta S. Poudel; Haruhiko Isawa; Toshihiko Hayashi; Naomi Seki; Takashi Tomita; Kyoko Sawabe; Mutsuo Kobayashi |
Symbiotic Bacteria Associated with Stomach Discs of Human Lice †
2006, September
The symbiotic bacteria associated with the stomach disc, a large aggregate of bacteriocytes on the ventral side of the midgut, of human body and head lice were characterized. Molecular phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that the symbionts formed a distinct and well-defined clade in the Gammaproteobacteria. >>> |
Multispacer typing of Rickettsia
prowazekii enabling epidemiological studies of epidemic typhus.
September 2005
"Currently, there is no tool for typing Rickettsia prowazekii, the
causative agent of epidemic typhus, currently considered a
potential bioterrorism agent, at the strain level."
Zhu Y,
Fournier PE,
Ogata H,
Raoult D. |
Excretion of living Borrelia
recurrentis in feces of infected human body lice.
2005 June
"We conclude that, similar to epidemic typhus and trench fever,
transmission of LBRF may be caused by lice feces."
Houhamdi L,
Raoult D. |
Drugs used in treatment of pediculosis
2005 March
"This having been said, the two are so closely related that it is
naive to believe that head lice will never be shown to spread
disease."
Elston DM. |
Lice and lice-borne diseases in
humans
2005 March
Rickettsia prowazekii, Borrelia recurrentis, Bartonella quintana,
Acinetobacter baumannii
Houhamdi L,
Parola P,
Raoult D. |
Ectoparasitism and
vector-borne diseases in 930 homeless people in Marseilles
2005 January
"The uncontrolled louse infestation of this population should
alert the community to the possibility of severe re-emerging
louse-borne infections."
Brouqui P,
Stein A,
Dupont HT,
Gallian P,
Badiaga S,
Rolain JM,
Mege JL,
La Scola B,
Berbis P,
Raoult D. |
Louse-borne human pathogen Bartella
quintana is a genomic derivative of the zoonotic agent Bartonella
henselae
2004 February
Cecilia M. Alsmark *   ,
A. Carolin Frank * ,
E. Olof Karlberg * ,
Boris-Antoine Legault *, David H.
Ardell *  ,
Björn Canbäck * ¶, Ann-Sofie
Eriksson *, A. Kristina Näslund *,
Scott A. Handley * ||, Maxime Huvet *,
Bernard La Scola * **, Martin
Holmberg
and Siv G. E. Andersson *,
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Potential role of head lice,
Pediculus humanus capitis, as vectors of Rickettsia prowazekii.
2003 June
"This review of the epidemiology of head louse and body louse
infestations, and of LBET, indicates that head lice are potential
vectors of R. prowazekii in the field."
Robinson D,
Leo N,
Prociv P,
Barker SC. |
Bartonella quintana Bacteremia
Among Homeless People
2002
C. Foucault, K. Barrau, P. Brouqui, and D. Raoult |
Detection of Bartonella
quintana from body lice (Anoplura: Pediculidae) infesting homeless
people in Tokyo by molecular technique.
2002 May
Sasaki T,
Kobayashi M,
Agui N. |
Human Pathogens in Body and Head
Lice
2002 November
Pierre-Edouard Fournier,* Jean-Bosco Ndihokubwayo,*†
Jo Guidran,‡ Patrick J. Kelly,§ and Didier Raoult* |
Experimental Model of Human
Body Louse Infection Using Green Fluorescent Protein-Expressing
Bartonella quintana
2001 March
Pierre-Edouard
Fournier,1 Michael F. Minnick,2
Hubert Lepidi,1,3 Eric Salvo,1 and
Didier Raoult1,* |
Serodiagnosis of Louse-Borne Relapsing
Fever with Glycerophophodiester Phosphodiesterase (GlpQ) from
Borrelia recurrentis
2000 October
Stephen F.
Porcella,1 Sandra J. Raffel,1
Merry E. Schrumpf,1 Martin E. Schriefer,2
David T. Dennis,2 and Tom G. Schwan1,*
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The body louse as a vector for
reemerging human diseases
1999 October
Raoult D,
Roux V. |
Body Lice as Tools for Diagnosis and
Surveillance of Reemerging Diseases
1999 March
Veronique
Roux and Didier Raoult*
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Seroprevalence to Bartonella
quintana among patients at a community clinic in downtown Seattle
1996 April
Jackson LA,
Spach DH,
Kippen DA,
Sugg NK,
Regnery RL,
Sayers MH,
Stamm WE. |
Emergence of Bartonella
quintana Infection among Homeless Persons
Emerging Infectious Diseases * Volume 2 * Number 2
April-June 1996 |
Phthirapterists
http://www.phthiraptera.org/
Bird Flu?? Anybody looking at bird lice? |
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