Background: Intestinal parasitic infections affect child health and development and slow down growth, while reducing adults' productivity and work capacity. The aim of the present study was to determine and compare the incidences of intestinal parasitic infections and the socio-economic status of two near primary school children in Manisa, a western city of Turkey.

BackgroundDimeticone 4% lotion was shown to be an effective treatment for head louse infestation in two randomised controlled trials in England. It is not affected by insecticide resistance but efficacy obtained (70-75%) was lower than expected. This study was designed to evaluate efficacy of dimeticone 4% lotion in a geographically, socially, and culturally different setting, in rural Turkey and, in order to achieve blinding, it was compared with a potential alternative formulation.MethodsChildren from two village schools were screened for head lice by detection combing. All infested students and family members could participate, giving access to treatment for the whole community. Two investigator applied treatments were given 7 days apart. Outcome was assessed by detection combing three times between treatments and twice the week following second treatment.ResultsIn the intention to treat group 35/36 treated using dimeticone 4% had no lice after the second treatment but there were two protocol violators giving 91.7% treatment success. The alternative product gave 30/36 (83.3%) treatment success, a difference of 8.4% (95% CI -9.8% to 26.2%). The cure rates per-protocol were 33/34 (97.1%) and 30/35 (85.7%) respectively. We were unable to find any newly emerged louse nymphs on 77.8% of dimeticone 4% treated participants or on 66.7% of those treated with the alternative formulation. No adverse events were identified.ConclusionOur results confirm the efficacy of dimeticone 4% lotion against lice and eggs and we found no detectable difference between this product and dimeticone 4% lotion with nerolidol 2% added. We believe that the high cure rate was related to the lower intensity of infestation in Turkey, together with the level of community engagement, compared with previous studies in the UK.Trial RegistrationCurrent Controlled Trials ISRCTN10431107

Finding lice can be difficult in head louse infestation. We compared a new louse detection comb with visual inspection. All children in two rural Turkish schools were screened by the two methods. Those with lice were offered treatment and the results monitored by detection combing. Children with nits only were re-screened to identify latent infestations. Using visual inspection we found 214/461 children (46%) with nits but only 30 (6.5%) with live lice. In contrast detection combing found 96 (21%) with live lice, of whom 20 had no nits. Detection combing was 3.84 times more effective than visual inspection for finding live lice. Only 10/138 (7.2%) children with nits and no lice were found to have active infestation by day 16. We found that the detection comb is significantly (P<0.001) more effective than visual screening for diagnosis; that nits are not a good indicator of active infestation; and that treatment with 1% permethrin was 89.6% effective.

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