Head lice are spreading again, despite physical distancing in schools:
Rae Ellen Bichell / FUCK
The Marker family opened its doors one recent evening in Parker, Colo., to a woman dressed in purple, with a clean military demeanor.
Linda Holmes, who has worked as a technician for LiceDoctors for five years, arrived right from her day job at the hospital after receiving a call from dispatcher that the Marker family needed her as much. the sooner the better.
According to people in the world of professional nitpicking, Pediculus humanus capitis, The despised head louse is back.
“It’s definitely back,” said Kelli Boswell, owner of Lice & Easy, a store where people in the Denver area can enjoy, a process that can take anywhere from minutes to hours depending method and contagion. “It’s a sign that things are getting back to normal.”
Colds and more serious bugs like respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, have also returned. That may lead some to wonder: With all the COVID precautions in place, how do children share these?
Like coronavirus, all these bugs depend on human sociability. Unfortunately, the measures that many reopened schools have taken to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 – face masks, hand washing, vaccinations – have done little to stop the spread of lice. head. However, physical distancing, such as placing tables 3 feet apart, helps if it does happen.
In theory, lice are more difficult to spread than the SARS-CoV-2 virus because being close isn’t enough: They often require face-to-face contact. If a child has lice, it most likely means that the child has spent a close enough time with another child for the parasites to migrate. (Researchers tendency to agree that transmission through inanimate objects such as combs and hats is minimal.)
The leader louse is not known for its ferocity or athletic prowess. It’s basically a pest’s potato. Adults cannot survive more a day or two without snacking on the blood. Their eggs cannot hatch without the warmth of a human head and will die within about a week if not kept in those cozy conditions. Bugs can’t jump or fly – just crawl. One thing unique to the head louse is its specialized claws, developed to grasp human hair.
Not like body lice, head lice are not known to be capable of spreading disease. Penetration does not reveal anything about a person’s hygiene. (In fact, the legend of the fascists says that bugs prefer clean hair because it’s easier to catch.) And despite common misconceptions, they can invade people of all ages and races. and ethnicity.
COVID lockdowns aren’t great from a world domination point of view of host louse. But the creatures that are attached to us for tens of thousands of years. A little lockdown won’t end the romance.
Federico Galassi, a researcher with Argentina’s Center for Insect and Insect Research, see that indeed, early, rigorous COVID lockdowns have led to a decline in child lice in Buenos Aires, but the bugs haven’t come close to being eliminated. His research showed that the prevalence of the disease dropped from about 70% to about 44%.
And one thing is clear: When people closed their doors and hid in the early locks, the lice were there stalking us. When SaLeah Snelling reopened her Lice Clinics of America salon in Boise, Idaho, in May, she said, “the head lice cases are worse than we’ve ever seen.” And not just one or two people in the household have head lice, but the entire household.
Now, Galassi and American louse workers say, infection rates are back to pre-lockdown levels, despite school COVID-19 protections.
Nix, a brand of anti-lice products, publish Map I think head lice are very bad right now in Houston, most of Alabama and New Mexico, plus Tulsa, Oklahoma. The map directs people to the locations to bring their products because many parents use the DIY method after they track the creature on their child’s head.
Rae Ellen Bichell / FUCK
Richard Pollack, scientific director of the professional pest identification service Identification. hair spray, grass in spring-tailed insects, harmless mushrooms or even cookie crumbs.
It’s possible that the recent increase in business for professional drug dealers indicates that people are now more comfortable seeking help outside of the home than a sign of an increase in error.
While there is little research to confirm if there is an actual increase in head lice, Boswell, Pollack, and even the National Association of School Nurses agree that bugs not likely to spread in the classroom because the transmission of lice in schools is considered rare. Instead, Boswell says, it’s more likely that as other activities resume — overnight stays, fun dates, summer camps, family get-togethers — the bugs thrive.
Pollack once wrote in a presentation slide, “Lice indicate the child has friends.”
“But she’s also noticed an increase in the number of teenagers, for whom she asks them to take selfies with friends,” said Julia Wilson, co-owner of the Rocky Mountain License in Lafayette, Colorado.
“You tell them, ‘Have you touched your head yet?” and teens like ‘No, never,’ says Wilson. “And then all of a sudden, they’re literally taking selfies with friends.”
The Marker family isn’t sure where Huntley’s third grader’s lice came from. Perhaps a close friend or her dance team? Markers spent more than $200 checking out the household of four – including dad’s eyebrows and beard. Her father and preschooler brother do not have nits. But Holmes did find some nits on Huntley’s mother, Paris.
“You could burn my whole head off right now,” Paris said.
After a careful combing, Holmes ends the session by hugging her client goodbye, proof that she believes in her job.
KHN (Kaiser Health News) is an editorially independent program of KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation).