Autumn comes, the children go to school, and after a routine medical examination, it turns out that 5% of them have uninvited tenants - lice - settled on their heads. Parents are shy and try to hide the presence of insects from others, because this has always been considered a sign of untidiness and dirt. They continue to pretend that nothing happened and send the child to school as if nothing had happened. But should you do this, maybe you should learn more about what a human louse is, how to prevent its appearance and how to deal with this unpleasant neighbor?
Human louse
Lice are blood-sucking parasites that belong to the order of lice and live on the skin of an animal or person. The population of these insects is distributed throughout the world, and even in ancient times, people already suffered from their bites and tried to remove them in various ways.
Outbreaks of intense lice invasion are typical during wars, famines, disasters, then they are especially dangerous, as they are carriers of serious diseases. But even in summer, thanks to favorable conditions, they spread very quickly, especially in crowded places, for example, in children'scamps.
Is it possible to get head lice from pets, and do dogs have human lice? Scientists believe that this is impossible, since each species of mammals has its own species of parasites, adapted only to them. Two types of human louse live on a person - head and pubic. In turn, the head louse has a subspecies - the body louse.
Head louse: what does it look like?
The way the blood-sucking parasite leads a life depends on how the human louse looks like. Its body is oval, and the back and abdomen are flat. Tenacious, but relatively short legs are very dexterous, allow you to move quite quickly through the hair. Among them there are small ones with a size of 0.5 mm, but some adults are quite large, reaching 6.5 mm. About what the human louse looks like, the photo below gives a clear idea.
The body of lice, like all ordinary insects, is divided into 3 parts: head, chest and abdomen. The head is oblong and narrows towards the mouth, in the middle there are two simple eyes and a pair of five-segmented antennae. In front of the head there is a mouth opening, it is covered with a skin fold, inside of which there are chitinous hooks, with their help the louse is fixed on the skin.
The apparatus used by the insect for food is hidden under the mouth in a kind of tube case, it is also called the vagina.
Chest of insects in the form of a trapezoid, divided into three parts, fastened together. On each part a pair of legs from eachhand.
The paws are single-segmented, and at their tips there is a claw, it is well developed and mobile, resembling a claw. With its help, the louse moves through the hair.
The abdomen of an insect consists of 9 parts and has the shape of an oval or an elongated egg.
The first 2 are reduced in size, reduced, and the next 6 are pronounced and separated by scallops. The anus is located on the last 9th section.
Dress louse
This type of lice usually lives on a person's clothes and underwear. She lays her eggs in the seams, folds of clothing and villi of fabric. In the same place, she hides, and crawls out to eat on the skin of the owner. It is believed that this species arose much later than other lice, since clothing is a product of civilization, and these insects appeared almost along with mammals.
Pubic louse
The human louse of this species has a light yellow color. Rounded body with warty hairy projections. It is because of its flat shape that it is called a square. The rear pair of legs has helical claws, and they help her to cling tightly to the hairs.
She lives on the hairy surface of the pubis, in the genital area. In some people, such a louse can be located in the armpits, in the eyebrows, eyelashes. The pubic louse does not live on the hair of the head, due to the peculiarity of the structure of its legs. They reach up to 3 mm in size, but it is difficult to notice them, as they are good at hiding under the skin, and sometimes only a doctor can determine their presence.
Human louse: life cycle
Lifespan andreproduction of lice depends on living conditions, external temperature and humidity. Therefore, it varies from 27 days to 46. About 3 weeks pass from the inception of nits to the start of the productive age. A larva emerges from the egg, it resembles an adult insect, only smaller, and immediately begins to suck blood. She should eat often: 8, sometimes 12 times a day, at least every 2 hours. They really like the favorable temperature a little above 20-30 degrees and the air humidity of 70%.
The outer covers of the larvae do not grow, therefore, increasing in size, it simply molts, that is, sheds the chitinous shell, and a new one grows in it. The color of the larva is brown and it changes its vestment 3 times, going through the same number of stages. They last from 3 to 5 days, and at this time the lice larvae are beautifully called nymphs.
Reproduction of lice
Lice begin to multiply very quickly as soon as they emerge from the larval stage, immediately after molting. A fertilized female after 2 days already begins to lay eggs on the hair of the owner.
The body louse can lay up to 14 eggs per day, which is up to 330 per life cycle. The head is not so prolific, so 4 eggs a day is its limit, and a maximum of 140 nits is obtained in a lifetime.
Good nutrition increases the productivity of females, as well as comfortable positive temperatures from 20 to 37 degrees. When they decrease, as well as increase, they slow down, and at low temperatures they fall into suspended animation.
Nit eggs are oval in shape, their sizeabout a millimeter, the color is light yellow. They consist of two shells: upper leathery, inner yolk (chorion). In its upper part there is a lid with small holes called micropyle, through which sperm enters the egg. When the time comes for the larva to hatch, the lid opens slightly and it gets out.
The egg develops from 4 to 13 days, and again it depends on favorable factors.
Symptoms of infection
After the human louse has settled on the body of a person, he begins to feel itching at the bites - this is the most basic indicator of infection. Small grayish constantly itchy spots form on the head, neck, ears, in this place the louse sucked blood.
If insects settled in clothes, then they begin to itch strongly, neck, lower back, between the shoulder blades. With the spread of the population, the itching becomes stronger and more unbearable, sometimes it interferes with normal sleep. If you do not take action, a bluish rash appears all over the body or in some places - bite sites where the parasite actively feeds.
Accordingly, from pubic louse bites in people, annoying itching makes people scratch their pubis, scrotum, anus.
Piece bites are not so painful, some even get used to them and stop noticing. Bite marks are bluish in color and are sometimes located on the abdomen and thighs.
The appearance of lice can be determined by the presence of nits on the hair. They look like small scales of dandruff, but on close examination they resemble a drop and are very attached to the hair.hard. To make sure that the infection has occurred, you can comb with a small special comb over a white cloth, then some insects will fall on it and be noticeable.
Complications of head lice
It is believed that pediculosis is completely harmless, getting rid of it is easy, maybe sometimes it is, but complications often occur that are difficult to cure (dangerous and spreading diseases):
- human head lice, for example, can cause pyoderma - the result of a bacterial infection in the bite wound as a result of scratching;
- the same cause of inflammation on the skin in the form of pustular vesicles called impetigo;
- blepharitis and conjunctivitis - companions of colonization of eyelash area;
- lymphadenitis occurs from bites in the groin, on the neck or behind the ears;
- typhus and relapsing fever - these terrible diseases, which are carried by lice, claimed the lives of thousands of people during the war and famine.
- Volyn fever.
Lice Prevention
To avoid infestation with lice, a person must observe hygiene, wash more often, wash clothes and linen thoroughly, observing a high temperature regime. Iron things carefully, ironing all seams.
In no case should you give your hairbrush to strangers and use other people's personal belongings yourself, put on clothes of strangers.
As a prophylaxis, you can lubricate the skin behind the ears, the occipital region with tea tree oil orlavender.
To avoid re-infection with head lice, hoods and collars of clothes, towels, children's toys should be processed and washed in very hot water.
Schools and child care facilities conduct regular check-ups of children for the presence of the disease, especially in the autumn when they return from summer holidays.
In places where refugees and hired workers from Asian countries gather, medical centers are being set up to check those who come to our country for the presence of pediculosis.
Human louse: how to treat
The method of treating the disease depends on the type and the place where the human lice settled, how to get rid of them quickly, without relapse, everyone should know. The most important thing is to destroy all insects and nit eggs. And, of course, now there are no people who want to sprinkle dust on their heads or spray Dichlorvos, they are extremely poisonous and intended for other purposes, so you can poison yourself along with insects.
The human head louse responds well to Medifox and Medifox-Super. Hair and skin are treated with a 0.6% solution using a cotton swab, then the head is thoroughly washed. Another effective remedy is "Nittifor", after application, the head is wrapped for 40 minutes and also washed very well with hot water and soap. Having finished the chemical treatment procedure, the hair is combed with a special fine comb, tilting the head over the cloth to comb out the nits. After that, the rag should be burned.
But, unfortunately, the comb, evenvery frequent, it is not always possible to comb out all the eggs. The surest and most effective way, known to our great-grandmothers, is to remove them with your hands. A lot of patience is required, since one or two times all the nits cannot be removed, so these manipulations must be repeated daily until not a single nit remains on the head.
In recent years, and scientists have noted this, parasites have appeared that have been able to adapt to some poisonous drugs, so if it is noticed that the medicine is not effective enough, then you can try another. Fortunately, in pharmacies their choice is quite wide: Nix, Lauri, Butadion, Veda-2, Pair Plus, hellebore water, serum ointment. But of course, it is best to consult a doctor, he will determine which specific human louse has settled, prescribe treatment and help avoid subsequent relapses.
These products are all toxic, so handwashing with soap and water is a basic precaution and should not be neglected, otherwise poison particles can enter the mouth or eyes.
If a human body louse is wound up in a person's underwear, how to treat it? Simply all pillowcases and sheets, the patient's clothes should be boiled and ironed.
To get rid of unpleasant tenants, it is not enough to simply wash in hot water, linen and clothes need to be boiled or steamed. Another effective way is insecticide treatment, washing and drying in the sun for a long time. The most effective way to disinfect clothing is to process it in a steam chamber. In this casecombined and chemical disinfection using high temperatures.
If the clothes are thick and the seams are thick, then its disinfection requires special care, since insects are well protected in such folds, and one treatment may not be enough.
It should also be borne in mind that the body louse is very good at fixing itself on the fluffy hair of the human body, so in addition to processing linen, you need to lubricate the body with anti-pediculosis drugs.
To drive out the flathead, you need to carefully shave your pubic hair, armpits, beard. Then use products containing pyrethrins, which have an anti-pediculosis effect. For example, Spray-Lax is an effective tool. The medicine is sprayed on the pubis and armpits, and after half an hour it should be washed off well with warm water and soap. Insects and nits are manually removed from eyebrows and eyelashes.
Features of the treatment of children
Children are the most susceptible to head lice infestations, but they are much more difficult to treat than adults, as anti-pediculosis drugs are very toxic.
A child infected with insects should be immediately isolated from the kindergarten group and school class, it is necessary to wear a hat in order to avoid infecting others.
When treating the head, make sure that the drug does not get into the eyes, ears, and mouth. If your baby feels unwell or shows signs of an allergy, see a doctor as soon as possible.
Folk remedies for the treatment of lice
People have developed their own means of treating lice since ancient times, what was available was used, because before othersThere were simply no drugs. Insects were removed by mixing 1:1 sunflower oil and kerosene, garlic and onion juice, and then smeared them on the head. They also washed it with tar soap, cranberry juice, rinsed it with a decoction of wormwood, and carefully chose the nits. This procedure was repeated several times until the parasites were completely exterminated. But in fact, now there are plenty of funds in pharmacies to get rid of this scourge, so is it worth using outdated methods? Moreover, they do not fully guarantee that the disease will not return again.
From all of the above, it follows that the fight against this parasitic phenomenon should be aimed at the extermination of insects and the prevention of their infection. The population should be aware of the possible danger and control measures, what a human louse looks like, and the state is obliged to use all means, sanitary and epidemiological, to prevent the spread of insects.
