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Lice on the Loose!

Rachel Carson Elementary School in Gaithersburg, Maryland, was invaded this school year. To combat the intruders, school officials banned hairbrushes. Kids were ordered to place their coats in plastic bags. Five nurses were assigned to check 600 heads. Sound familiar? Yep, you guessed it. Head lice had invaded the school!

From New York to California, the human head louse is on the loose in schools. Each year, 10 million to 12 million Americans get head lice. The sesame-seed-size insects make themselves at home on human scalps and lay eggs, called nits, that they cement to strands of hair. Head lice do not carry disease, but they are a nasty--and itchy--pest.

The head louse has been annoying humans for thousands of years. Archaeologists have found signs of lice in the hair of ancient Egyptian mummies.

Modern humans use chemicals to get rid of the pests. For decades, chemical shampoos and rinses helped control head-lice outbreaks. In recent years, outbreaks have become more and more frequent. The tiny insect appears to have become harder to kill. Parents say that just days after treating their kids for lice, the itchy bugs are back.

Survival Of The Fittest
Thousands of parents and school officials are calling county health offices to report that the ordinary lice-killing products just don't seem to be working. Wayne Kramer, an insect expert for Nebraska, has received 125 calls since September. "I think it's on the brink of being out of control," he says.

Many health officials fear that a stronger kind of head louse has emerged. Scientists believe that permethrin (per-meth-rin), the main chemical used in many lice-killing products, killed off weaker lice. That would leave only the stronger lice, and permethrin just can't kill them.

This theory has yet to be proved. But families who have experienced the problem say the theory sounds about right. Says Michele Colburn, who recently spent six months battling lice on her 11-year-old daughter: "The lice would disappear from her head and then reappear. I tried every shampoo on the market, but they would just keep coming back."

A Nit-Picking Solution
What do the experts recommend? The key is removal of the nits. Lice eggs are much harder to spot than the full-grown lice. But if the nits are not removed or combed out, the insects will reappear. So keep combing!

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