With fall fast approaching, it’s time for kids to head back to school. As students congregate in classrooms, stories of summer adventures aren’t the only thing they’ll be sharing.
Head lice will make their dreaded, itchy appearance again this year. But now, the annoying little pests are harder to kill.
A new analysis finds Maine is among 25 states where lice have grown resistant to an ingredient in common over-the-counter treatments. Permethrin, long the first line of defense against head lice — and still effective against ticks — has lost its punch. After decades of exposure, lice have genetically mutated to become desensitized to the chemical, according to researchers at Southern Illinois University.
Permethrin is the active ingredient in many drugstore lice treatments, including Nix and Rid brands.
The scientists, led by Kyong Yoon, an assistant professor in the biological sciences and environmental sciences program, presented their findings Tuesday at a meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston, several media outlets reported. (As HealthDay points out, research presented at such meetings is considered preliminary until it’s published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.)
The researchers gathered lice samples from 30 states.
“We have found 100 percent resistance among 104 lice populations out of 109 we tested,” Yoon told HealthDay. “It’s really alarming.”
Head lice aren’t known to transmit disease. But the little parasites cause itching as they feast on our blood and deposit their eggs (called nits) at the base of hair shafts. Lice can’t jump or fly, they spread by crawling from the hair of an infested person to others. Personal hygiene and cleanliness play no role in head lice infestations.
The U.S. CDC estimates that 6 million to 12 million head lice infestations occur each year in the United States among children aged 3 to 11.
The good news is that other treatments are available to kill lice, though they may be costlier. Prescription medications that contain newer generation chemicals, such as benzyl alcohol and ivermectin, still work.
(Yoon’s research was funded by Sanofi, a drug company that sells a lice treatment product containing ivermectin, CNN reported.)
Still, scientists warn that lice could similarly grow resistant to those other chemicals over time.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that in areas with known resistance to over-the-counter lice treatments, parents should call their child’s doctor about trying a prescription medication. The academy also notes that most cases of head lice are acquired outside of schools, urging administrators to allow kids with infestations to remain in class and warning that “no-nit policies are unjust and should be abandoned.”
Another way to rid children of lice is to brush the hair with a fine-tooth comb that catches the parasites.
Professional treatment services are popping up to help families combat lice. Waterville resident Mary Collar opened All About Lice in January after 11 members of her family got lice and spent hundreds of dollars on chemical treatments.
“I would’ve given my teeth for somebody to help me,” she told the BDN at the time.
A similar company based in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, has a location in Portland according to its website, and some Massachusetts lice removal services travel to southern Maine.