What causes head lice

By and large, there are very few reasons why louses appear on the head: these parasites are not able to fly, jump far (like, for example, fleas) and cannot even run fast. However, their ability to appear even among people who are clean and living in good conditions is simply amazing, and therefore knowing where the head lice come from is necessary at least to protect oneself from this scourge and to protect one's relatives from infection. Especially - children.

The main and only reasons for the appearance of lice are various cases of their transfer from an infected person to a healthy person. Lice, unlike helminths, for example, have no other owners besides humans, and therefore it is impossible to get them from food and even in nature.

But ways to transmit lice from one person to another is quite a lot: in general, the appearance of lice on the head is directly related to the specific situation and circumstances in which a new potential carrier of these parasites falls.

On a note

Lice do not appear out of nowhere; they cannot hibernate under the skin or, even less, in bumps on the head, although such ideas are widespread even today. Lice are external parasites, and they are either on the skin and hair, or on clothing. Also human lice do not appear from dogs, cats and other domestic animals: by virtue of their narrow specialization, they can only live on humans. Respectively, doggy and cat lice never appear in humans.

Feedback

“I was shocked. Where does a person get lice from, if my child has never touched either dogs or cats, is always dressed on the street, does not take anything by mouth. In any case, the lice were taken out in a day, even though we now know how to do it. ”

Evgenia, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky

It is important to be able to distinguish lice from their own eggs - nits. Lice are mobile and look like tiny bedbugs. A nits - it is white dots on the hair, securely glued and difficult to destroy. They are a kind of bags, each of which is an egg.

Nits appear almost immediately after the adult female gets on the hair of its victim. Nits by themselves do not spread and are not transmitted from person to person.Only in exceptional cases, hair with nits from one person can get on the head of another, but even so, the likelihood of further development of lice in an infected person is almost impossible (a single individual will not be able to reproduce).

 

Ways to transmit lice

There are many ways to transmit lice. The main and leading in the spread of pediculosis is the close physical contact of the infected and the infected. Lice on the head appear, for example, when kissing, intercourse, playing together, fighting, other cases of touching the head of one person with the head of another.

On a note

It is important to remember about different types of lice and forms of every kind. Pubic and body lice appear for reasons somewhat different from those for head lice.

Lice in children often appear in joint games, constant fights and just by direct communication. Practice shows that parasites in children's groups spread with lightning speed.

It is important to understand that the reasons for the appearance of lice in children are not always in the violation of some hygienic rules: the parasites can easily infect both children with a clean head and those who have not washed for a long time.

Lice infest sometimes and through some other modes of transmission.For example, the causes of head lice may be:

• transferring adult insects, nymphs and nits through shared combs, towels and pillows.
• Bathing in the baths or baths without changing the water between bathing. Lice can easily tolerate being in water and can do without oxygen for quite a long time, therefore, quite a lot of parasites can swim in the bathroom after a lousy person.
• Sharing caps, especially - fur. In them, lice can not distinguish between a person's hair and fur on a hat and remain on the very headdress after wearing.

The video below explains in detail how lice appear in a person and what this may lead to:

On a note

Linen lice infused almost exclusively after transfer through clothing. Cases of their transmission through bodily contact take place as an exception. Also rarely does the spread of lice occur through hygiene and household items. Linen louse is considered the main companion of humanitarian disasters and wars: most often, these lice infest in refugee camps, among wanderers and soldiers.

Sometimes people find that they have lice almost immediately after intercourse.But it is more characteristic of the pubic lice: on the human body, they live mainly on the pubis and in the armpits. Not surprisingly, pubic lice sometimes referred to as venereal diseases.

It is interesting

Repeatedly, there were cases when pubic lice appeared after co-swimming in natural waters. The most numerous such precedents in overcrowded areas of India, Cambodia and Laos. Of all the lice, it is the pubic that is most actively spread through the water. In this case, the main danger is the fact that after such a transmission, lice often appear in children, and sometimes in places uncharacteristic for them: on the eyebrows, eyelashes and head.

 

Children as a major risk group

Children are more likely to become infected with lice. There are several reasons for this:

• lack of inculcated hygiene skills - children often have head lice after sharing the same clothes, bed, toys.
• Tendency to closer contacts - for children, hugs, fights, games with constant contact of heads are absolutely normal. In such conditions, lice in children infest quickly and spread even when they are not particularly noticeable at the main source of parasites.
• A greater inclination and frequency of contacts with peers - in general, the circle of communication among children is wider than among adults, and the likelihood that among familiar children there will be a “nidonosodets” as a whole is higher. That is why lice appear in children in many cases, regardless of the social status of the parents.

In addition, the reason why lice in children appear more often than in adults is the lower selectivity of children in the choice of friends. Children are equally easy to get in touch with well-groomed peers, and with those who live in poor sanitary conditions and are even vagrants.

Important

The reason for the appearance of lice in young children may be quite banal - the child may be infected by the sick mother. He will definitely not be able to avoid this contact, and it all depends on how the mother herself approaches the issue of ensuring her safety.

 

Optimal conditions for the spread of lice

Important reasons for the appearance of lice in a large number of people include the corresponding social and sanitary conditions in which people live. This explains the fact that today lice are especially common in developing countries.

The following factors and causes of the appearance of lice in humans are particularly conducive to the spread of parasites and the diseases they cause

• low cultural level of society as a whole, lack of well-established rules of strict individual hygiene
• promiscuity, from which pubic lice are usually infused
• well-established and well-formed groups and groups of people. In connection with reduced contact barriers in such groups and, as a result, taken as the norm by kisses, hugs, other bodily contacts, lice here are especially numerous and spread with very high speed.
• Circumstances conducive to the unification of a large number of people — in prisons, field camps, refugee camps, and louse reservations — appear in the order of things — it is extremely difficult to avoid contact with infected or his household items.

In general, in the world, head lice appear more often in people in the winter, when the population spends most of the time on the premises in close contact with each other. In countries with a high standard of living, there are other peaks in the number of infections with head lice: from the beginning of autumn, when children infected in summer come to schools, in early spring,when children more begin to visit the streets and communicate with extra-social elements.

 

How lice don't exactly appear

Along with science-proven methods of lice infestation, there are various folk myths and stereotypes that try to explain what causes lice on the head. Among them:

• "Lice come from the nerves" - a very famous myth that even today they like to explain any case of lice infection.
• "Lice sleep in the scalp and crawl out with weakened immunity or severe stress" - no less stupid. Lice are not able to live under the skin, and by and large, they do not care who to bite - a person with a weakened immune system or completely healthy.
• "Lice can jump from dogs and cats" - human louse not able to live on animals, and eaters that affect cats and dogs can not eat on humans. Therefore, such a cause of lice in a person is also incorrect.

In any case, whatever the cause of the appearance of the head lice and from what the head lice appear on the clothes and bed, you need to know a few simple rules of prevention, which will provide reliable protection against these parasites.

 

Protection against lice: how to avoid the appearance of parasites

Tips for preventing lice infestation are pretty simple, but not everyone can follow it:

• it is necessary to avoid close contacts with unfamiliar people, especially those whose social status raises certain doubts.
• The absence of casual sexual relations is a reliable guarantee of life without pubic lice and reducing the risk of infection with head lice.
• Do not use other people's hairbrushes, clothes, bedding, hairpins and elastics.

Children regularly need to check the condition of the hair - often even being heavily infected, they do not admit it, being afraid of being ridiculed by their peers.

The first signs of the appearance of lice are itching, at first rather weak, and the appearance of white spots on the hair and bites on the scalp. Already then, with breeding lice, spots, rashes and allergic reactions appear.

If there are lice, you don’t need to do so much - buy lice shampoo at the nearest pharmacy or, at worst (if you don’t have any money at all), take kerosene and thoroughly soak your head with one of these products, soak for about an hour under a plastic bag .

Sometimes in order to get rid of lice it is recommended to use special metal combs.Such tools require a longer fight, but they avoid the use of insecticidal drugs, which may be relevant for people with allergies.

So no matter what the lice appear in each case, the ways to get rid of them are well known and developed. But it is better to prevent the infection itself and protect yourself and loved ones from it.

 

An interesting video: what causes head lice?

 

Where do lice crawl from?