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Saturday, September 13, 2003According to an article published in the May 7, 2001 issue of Pediatrics, more than 1,700 Atlanta-area schoolchildren were examined for head lice. Ninety-one were found with nits alone or lice. Of the 63 children with nits only, 50 completed the study. Of the 50 children with nits alone, only 9 or 18% became infested with lice during the 2-week follow-up. “This is good evidence that most nits do not develop into lice,” says Allen Hightower, statistician for the study. “There is some evidence that nits found within 1/4 inch of the scalp will develop into lice, but even in these cases, two-thirds did not.” In the study, seven of 22 children with five or more nits found within 1/4 inch of the scalp developed a lice infestation during the 2-week follow-up. The data suggest that health policy developers consider re-evaluating the usefulness of a "no-nit" policy that excludes children from school just because nits alone are found in the hair. As an interesting aside, the recommended treatment for head lice are pyrethrins, which come from another fall perennial, chrysanthemums. posted by Sydney on 9/13/2003 03:30:00 PM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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