The start of school is right around the corner. At the kids will have something to do but with the school back in session, there are the normal things to worry about…homework, new clothes, stuffy noses and head lice! And it is not just the little kids, an increase of teens head with lice has been attributed to the selfie craze. Head lice is an itchy headache. Parents can only hope their child does not bring home the tiny nuisance. And nowadays it is more of a nuisance than ever because it harder to kill those little buggers. In the 1980s, over-the-counter treatment was close to 100% effective but today head lice have mutated and is resistant. What does a parent do besides sit for hours and hours picking the louse out of every hair strand. Before that school bell rings, it is probably a good idea to inform kids about how difficult it is to get rid of and to try avoid rubbing scalps with the kid in the desk a row over. Check this research discussed in this article below.
Study: 98% Of Head Lice In 42 States Now Resistant To Common Treatment
SOURCE: DAILY CALLER
Lice are becoming more difficult to eradicate in young children’s hair, according to a study released last week in the Journal of Medical Entomology (JME).
New evidence shows that head lice have developed resistance to two types of common over the counter insecticide treatments for lice infestation. JME studied 48 states and found that, on average, 98 percent of head lice in at least 42 states managed to grow gene mutations that enable them to become resistant to different insecticides other wise known as pyrethrins, pyrethroids, and permathrins.
Parapro.com notes in its timeline that the first natural pyrethrins to treat lice happened in 1945. By the 1980s, the over-the-counter insecticide solution to treat lice known as Nix, a permathrin, was the most commonly used treatment and was “nearly 100 percent effective.”
However, 20 years later, lice in Florida and Massachusetts begin to show evidence of mutation and resistance to permathrin. By 2001, three permathrin gene mutations are witnessed in 37 percent of the lice sampled from numerous states.
In 2009, Nix is now only 25 percent effective and by 2015, Parapro writes, “The three pyrethrin- and pyrethroid-resistant gene mutations are observed in an average of 98% of lice gathered from 48 states.”