“From time to time, head lice infestations become news stories, especially when treatment “failures” occur. You probably feel itchy right now just thinking about them! Head lice, scientifically known as Pediculus humanus capitis, have been around as long human beings have existed. After all, lice need human blood to live.”Guide Health. See full article: "Head lice is more common than you think." …
Lice and bacteria, partners in parasitism
“Head lice have been stigmatized, quickly conjuring images of infested school children and parents combing through their hair. This social stigma reaches many of the estimated 14 million people who are annually infested in the U.S. alone. However, these blood sucking lice have had a long and complex evolutionary history tied to humans and other mammals. In total, there are 532 species of blood sucking lice and each species parasitizes one or just a few mammal species.”MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION (OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS). See full article: "Lice and bacteria, partners in parasitism." …
Lice and their bacterial sidekicks have evolved together for millions of years
“A Florida Museum of Natural History study provides new insights into the complex, shared history between blood-sucking lice and the vitamin-producing bacterial sidekicks that enable them to parasitize mammals, including primates and humans. Lice depend on bacteria to supply essential vitamins missing from blood, their only food source.”Phys.org. See full article: "Lice and their bacterial sidekicks have evolved together for millions of years." …
Lice and their bacterial sidekicks have evolved together for millions of yearsRead More
Louse-borne relapsing fever in a refugee from Mali
“Due to the increasing number of refugees from East Africa, louse-borne relapsing fever (LBRF) has become an emergent disease in Europe. No single case of LBRF has been reported in Europe in refugees from other parts of Africa.”Source: Grecchi C1, Zanotti P2, Pontarelli A3, Chiari E2, Tomasoni LR4, Gulletta M4, Barbui A5, Caligaris S4, Matteelli A2, Castelli F2..Infection. See full article: "Louse-borne relapsing fever in a refugee from Mali." …
Efficacy of Peer Education for Adopting Preventive Behaviors against Head Lice Infestation in Female Elementary School Students: A Randomised Controlled Trial
“Peer education based on HBM (Health Belief Model) is an effective strategy to promote preventive behaviors against pediculosis in among fifth grade female elementary school students in Iran.”Source: Mahdi Moshki, Fereshteh Zamani-Alavijeh, Mehdi Mojadam PLOS ONE. See full article: "Efficacy of Peer Education for Adopting Preventive Behaviors against Head Lice Infestation in Female Elementary School Students: A Randomised Controlled Trial." …
Head Lice Epidemiology, Biology, Diagnosis, and Treatment
“Conflicting information about the proper treatment of head lice has given rise to uncertainty among patients and treating personnel. For example, the reported efficacy of permethrin fell from 97% in the 1990s to 30% in 2010.”Source: Laura Meister, Dr. med. and Falk Ochsendorf, Prof. Dr. med. Dtsch Arztebl Int. 2016 Nov; 113(45): 763–772. See full article: "Head Lice Epidemiology, Biology, Diagnosis, and Treatment." …
Head Lice Epidemiology, Biology, Diagnosis, and TreatmentRead More
Fourth case of louse-borne relapsing fever in Young Migrant, Sicily, Italy, December 2015. Mini Review Article
“Currently louse-borne relapsing fever (LBRF) is primarily found in limited endemic foci in Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan; no case of imported LBRF has been reported in Europe in the 9 years prior to 2015. The aim of our paper is to describe a new case of imported LBRF detected in Sicily, Italy, and to review all cases reported in migrants arrived in Europe in the last 10 years.”Source: Colomba C1, Scarlata F2, Di Carlo P2, Giammanco A2, Fasciana T2, Trizzino M2, Cascio A2. The Royal Society for Public Health. See full article: "Fourth case of louse-borne relapsing fever in Young Migrant, Sicily, Italy, December 2015. Mini Review Article." …
High Ancient Genetic Diversity of Human Lice, Pediculus humanus, from Israel Reveals New Insights into the Origin of Clade B Lice
“Though head lice have been found in nature to carry the DNA of Bartonella quintana, Borrelia recurrentis, Acinetobacter baumannii and Yersinia pestis [5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13], and experimental infections have shown that these lice can also act as a vector of louse-borne diseases [14, 15], their epidemiological significance is still debated.”Source: Nadia Amanzougaghene, Kosta Y. Mumcuoglu, Florence Fenollar, Shir Alfi, Gonca Yesilyurt, Didier Raoult, Oleg Mediannikov. PLoS ONE 11. See full article: "High Ancient Genetic Diversity of Human Lice, Pediculus humanus, from Israel Reveals New Insights into the Origin of Clade B Lice." …
Color Me Healthy
More than just a tool to keep children occupied, coloring books provide an entertaining, friendly, and interactive medium that can simplify otherwise complicated health-related subjects. Important public-health issues are conveyed to children in coloring books in a way that can transform an unpleasant subject into an engaging learning opportunity. For instance, it is uncommon to associate the word “cute” with “lice,” however the The Latest Greatest Coloring Book About Lice, a collection item in the National Library of Medicine’s (NLM) historical Prints & Photographs collection, achieves such a feat. This 10 page teaching tool produced by The National Pediculosis Association (NPA) contains whimsical drawings of lice in a story about where they live, how they move, and how people can get …