Lice, Nits, and School Policy

Abstract

Although having >/=5 nits within one fourth inch of the scalp was a risk factor for conversion, most children with nits alone did not become infested. Policies requiring exclusion from school and treatment for all children with nits alone are likely excessive. Instead, these children may benefit from repeated examination to exclude the presence of crawling lice.lice, pediculus, lice infestations, pediatrics, school.

On head lice and social interaction in archaic Andean coastal populations

“…This contrasts with current studies by Williams et al (2001) on recent populations, which found that only seven percent of children with fewer than 5 nits/eggs per 0.6 cm actually developed an active infestation. The calculated average number of 11 lice per mummy is likely an underestimation, because lice are prone to falling off the head while handling the mummy.…”

Epidemiology of pediculosis capitis among schoolchildren in the eastern area of Bangkok, Thailand

“…The high level infestations were reported by Saddozai et al [29] in primary schools of Quetta City, Pakistan with infestation rate of 87 % , 59 % in primary schools from the eastern Napal [30] , 48.9 % in primary school of Baghdad, Irag [31] , 35 % in primary schools of Kelantan, Malaysia [32] and 29.7 % in elementary schools of Buenos Aires, Argentina [19]. However, lower infestation rate were reported by Oh et al [8] in primary schools from urban and rural areas of Korea with infestation rate of 4.1 % [8] , 1.6 % in primary school from urban and rural areas of eastern Poland [33], 3.3 % in primary school from Bobigny, France [34] and 1.6 % in primary school of USA [35] . In addition, the variation of infestation rate may be due to several factors such as the school head lice policy, eradication methods, number of head-to-head contact, personal hygiene, overcrowded dwellings, economic condition, family income, attitude of less concern about head lice infestation [29,36] .…”

“…Akhter et al [37] found that the prevalence of pediculosis was higher in population of ≤15 years old group (22.15 % ) than that in population of [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] years old group (18.33 % ), [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45] years old group (13.20 % ) and ≥45 years old group (10.0 % ). Also, school children tended to mix more with person of the same age and contact at a school or home were more intimate than at a work place [13] .…”

Head Lice

“…Only 18% of those with nits alone converted to having an active infestation during 14 days of observation. 85 Although children with at least 5 nits within 1 cm of the scalp were significantly more likely to develop an infestation than were those with fewer nits (32% vs 7%), only one-third of the children at higher risk converted to having an active infestation. School exclusion of children with nits alone would have resulted in many of these children missing school unnecessarily.…”