headlice April 14th, 2008
There is controversy about having a "no nit policy" in schools. Some feel that since human head lice are not dangerous, children should not miss school, or be socially isolated and ostracized due to a head lice problem. Head lice are not dangerous, but they are extremely uncomfortable. Lice bite the scalp to draw blood, leaving itchy patches. Scratching leads to further skin irritation. There is certainly no controversy about preventing this discomfort from spreading! As a general rule, a no-nit policy is a necessary and good thing, specifically with regard to children who have not yet been treated, or are not being treated properly.
As explained in our previous post, head lice spread incredibly quickly. Head lice crawl from one head to another. In a school environment, there are so many opportunities for this to happen. In school, children are in contact with many peers every day. All it takes is for a student to brush up against an infested child, and a louse can and will quickly crawl onto the second host. It doesn't take long after that, for a full blown lice infestation to evolve on the second child's head.
Children tend to lean close to each other when working on projects, or studying together. On school buses children sit close to each other, especially when sharing a seat. The more obvious opportunities for lice to spread are when kids tell secrets, wrestle playfuly, or fight. All these situations are common in school.
to be continued
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headlice April 7th, 2008
continued from Do Head Lice Jump?
Biologically, Head Lice do not jump. Rather, they crawl very quickly from one head to another. Considering this fact about head lice, one may wonder how it is lice nits spread so quickly. Some people mistakenly think that one bug alone can not cause a head lice infestation. The truth is, it only takes one mature louse to begin a rapid lice infestation on the new host!
Like most live creatures, a louse egg must be fertilized in order to produce additional lice bugs. Mature female lice only need one fertilization to produce fertilized eggs for the rest of their life - approximately 30 days. An adult male louse will mate several times in its lifetime, fertilizing numerous females. Therefore almost all mature female lice have mated, and are ready and able to start infesting the hair with nits, at an average of 6 nit eggs per day.
Chances are that a mature louse that crawls on to a new head is in fact fertilized and ready to lay more than 150 nits in the hair over the next few weeks. It doesn't take much to spread a lice infestation.
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headlice April 3rd, 2008
There is actually a woman sitting in a Pennsylvania jail because she refused to come get her lice infested kids from school!
The Pittsburgh Tribune Review reported yesterday, that Nicole Lynn Holmes was dealing with the head lice infestations since February. The Belle Vernon Area School District has a "no nit policy", and Ms. Holmes was instructed to keep her children at home until the lice problem was resolved. When the kids showed up in school a few weeks later, they were still infested with headlice.
The school called the police, who arrested the mother and charged her with child endangerment. She is in custody, until a hearing on Friday.
The responsible thing to do when there is a lice infestation, is to get control of the lice and nits immediately, before the child has an opportunity to spread it to their schoolmates and friends. Lice spread very quickly. When head lice is treated properly, the lice infestation can be contained within the affected children and their immediate family. Left untreated, a short term inconvenience can become a community wide lice infestation.
The lesson here is clear: Do the right thing. Find out how to effectively remove lice and nits. If the job is too big or tedious for you, call the professionals. Ignoring a lice and nit infestation is selfish. And according to the police in Belle Vernon, PA, failure to treat head lice is a crime!
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