Where do lice come from a person and how to treat them

Almost always the fact of having lice on one’s head or in one’s child is a big and unpleasant surprise. Where lice come from and, most importantly, how to treat them now - these are the main questions that arise in the first place in a person and which we will look at in more detail later.

First of all, it is important to understand: the main and only source of lice is the people infected by them. Lice do not parasitize animals, cannot live on furniture and household items (except in often wearable clothes), and they get onto the body or head of a person only by moving from a sick person to a healthy person. At the same time lice do not know how to jump or fly and do not possess any special abilities that facilitate their movement between people.

However, spread lice manage very, very successfully. Practice shows that if so signs lice in humans appeared, it means that about a few weeks ago he had close contact with someone lousy.

On a note

Unlike most other bloodsucking insects, lice are not able to starve for a long time: in a normal city apartment at a temperature of about 23 ° C, these insects die without food in about 5 days. Ideally, lice should be fed to the body 3-4 times a day. This further limits their ability to move between victims. For example, ticks can go hungry for months, and patiently wait on their blade of grass for the next portion of blood.

 

When and how are lice transmitted?

Lice are transmitted by close bodily contacts of people with each other. The most famous pubic lousewhich in most cases is transmitted through sexual contact.

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“Even before treatment, I asked my doctor where the pubic lice came from. He told me - only from sexual partners. I have only had two connections in the last six months, and it looks like the star from the club infected me. ”

Igor, Moscow

Other types of lice transmitted in other situations:

• between family members when playing games and spending time together
• between children in kindergartens and schools - also with games and fights
• in crowded places in the absence of normal sanitation - in lodging places for the homeless, in field camps during hostilities, in refugee camps and prisons
• in public transport
• during crowded events
• in swimming pools and tanning beds
• in hiking trips.

The important thing is that lice need a certain time to crawl from one person to another. So, with a simple handshake, they are not transmitted - you need to stand tightly in the trolley bus for at least a long time or play with the child for a long time.

On a note

An important feature of lice is their ability to be transmitted from an infected person to others before the signs of their presence in the wearer become especially pronounced. This complicates the task of prevention and requires special care in communicating with people.

There are more rare ways to transmit lice. Parasites can be transported on hair care products, in caps and on water (swimming pools, for example). However, these methods have no leading value in the epidemiology of head lice.

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You are still asking where the head lice come from! Of course, you received them from your child even before lice was taken out from him. They need some time to multiply.Consider now, before you treat your head, that you most likely re-infected your child.

From the dialogue on the forum

It is important to understand that if lice appeared on the head in large numbers, the very moment of their transfer was already in the distant past - usually a few weeks ago. Usually, single insects are transmitted, which then give rise to a new population on an infected person.

In the photo below - louses on a comb with which they can be transferred to a healthy person:

The following photo shows a baby’s head louse infestation. This is a clear answer to the question of where lice come from in living conditions:

On a note

Local epidemics of pediculosis in children in September October are associated with their stay in children's camps in the summer. In a month or two, each student has time to ripen several generations of parasites, and itching on their heads usually occurs in about the same period.

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“I didn’t know beforehand where lice were taken from children, but everything turned out to be simple. One such lousy in kindergarten - and in a month all the children walk and itch, and the garden itself is closed for quarantine. Children are not ministers. They got into a fight, there they play head to head in toys, they just fool around there - lice between them are walking around the boulevard.

Raisa, Magnitogorsk

Now a few words about where the nits in the hair come from.

In most cases, nits are not transmitted from a person infected with lice to another. Nits are simply lice eggs attached by a special adhesive substance to the hair, absolutely motionless and not capable of being transmitted independently. Only occasionally are possible transfers of them with falling hair or on hairbrushes, but these options are unlikely. Nits on the head appear only from adult lice. If they are, then there are lice.

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“We often come to a consultation with both adults, mothers with children, and teenagers, and ask where the nits come from. We have to give them a lecture on biology and explain that they are set aside by the lice themselves. But from where lice from a person come from, everyone is informed normally. ”

Maria Georgievna, Krasnoyarsk

The video below explains in detail where lice come from and what the main situations of transmission are.

 

Useful video: how lice can be transmitted

The process of transferring clothes (underwear) lice is somewhat apart. They usually sit firmly on the inside of clothing, at the seams and doorways. When sharing clothes, they can remain on the body, and then infect another suit,can and move between people in contact with clothes. It is the clothes lice that should be feared in public transport.

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"Now I know where they come from linen lice. We rested on a wild beach in Odessa, and the homeless were hanging out near. This is a nightmare, of course. We left there immediately, as soon as I walked past their towels on the stones — it was clearly visible on them how lice crawled. Tin full! What if kids just walk around there? ”

Dmitry, Belgorod

 

Infestation of children with lice: all the features of the process

Infestation of children with lice is no different from the same process in adults, except that children:

• less inclined to follow the rules of hygiene. They easily put on other people's clothes, gladly use other people's towels, hairbrushes, hairpins and hair ties.
• They have fewer psychological barriers for close communication. Games and body contact between them - the absolute norm.
• In general, more sociable.
• Do not avoid communicating with asocial peers, and sometimes even seek to communicate with them.

As a result, children can pick up lice more likely and in more situations than adults. In general, according to statistics, children become infected with lice 5.4 times more often than adults. For this reason, when a louse appears in one of the adults in the family, first of all you should check the children - it is possible that some of them are infected, but still do not know about it.

Reviews

“I came to the doctor with constant itching on my head, I thought I had seborrhea. It turned out - banal lice. And the doctor asked where I work and with whom I communicate. I told him that I was a diplomat, and he advised me to examine the Kinders. It turned out that he was right - both son and daughter walk curled up, mothers do not confess, the nanny looks at them with one eye. Now I know where lice and nits come from in cultural families. ”

Ignat, St. Petersburg

It is important to understand that children usually make it very difficult to admit that they are sick with lice - this will make them laugh at school. Therefore, one should always be attentive to the behavior of children and take urgent measures when signs of the disease appear.

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“Because of the warm climate, the autumn pediculosis epidemic is especially serious - children are led in crowds. It was necessary in the clinic since the beginning of summer, and then - on the front houses in our area to hang pictures and announcements about where the lice come from and what could be the treatment against them. ”

Oksana Yurievna, Maykop

 

Lice is already there: what to do?

By and large, there is no point in guessing where the lice come from, when they already exist and the head or other parts of the body need treatment.

It is important to initially make sure that unpleasant symptoms are caused by lice. For this:

• thick comb combed hair from the roots above a white sheet or bath. Several insects must fall from the head.
• You need to ask a relative or friend just to inspect the hair itself, which should be visible nits.
• In the case of suspected pubic lice - independently examine the hair on the relevant part of the body. Lice there should be visible to the naked eye.

If the suspicions are confirmed, then it is necessary to begin treatment. You can follow the following instructions:

• the head is washed with a special shampoo for lice - Knicks, NOC, Veda - or used for lice spray. Processing is performed in accordance with the instructions for the specific tool. This step allows you to kill the main part of adult insects.
• Dried hair is drawn into the tail on one side of the head (if its length permits) and combed out by a special comb from lice strand by strand. This removes both adult dead and live parasites, as well as some nits.
• A week later, the procedure is repeated to destroy the larvae that could be removed from the surviving nits.

In principle, treatment with only shampoos or other pediculicidal agents, or just combing lice with a comb, will also give results. But at the same time there is a risk that lice survivors will remain on the head, and the treatment itself will take more time.

Treatment for pubic lice occurs by the same procedure. It is only important to use specialized drugs for pubic lice.

On a note

It is quite effective when visiting a pediculosis to receive special facilities or sanitary departments - there lice will be taken out at a time. However, such a visit must be prepared mentally - a contingent of “clients” of such institutions can cause a shock.

With lice fight a little differently. They must be destroyed on clothing, ideally in a special steam-formalin chamber. But you can simply boil clothes, wash it with vinegar or pediculicidal shampoo.

Treatment of lice folk remedies is the same as shampoos or lotions. However, it should be remembered that in general, folk remedies are less effective than special insecticidal drugs.

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“I have no idea why lice are taken, but they have come from somewhere.Maybe in training picked up, maybe in competitions. There were guys from Armenia with herpes on their fingers - a very dangerous thing for wrestlers. In short, I deduced kerosene lice, the old fashioned way. First, I shaved my head, then I washed it, then I smeared it with kerosene and put the bag on. I probably walked like that for an hour, then took it all off and washed it three times with normal shampoo so that it would not stink. But as I understood it, it was enough just to shave my head, lice then had no place to live. ”

Daur, Masaly

 

Lice prevention

Knowing where the headaches come from or bed liceYou can effectively reduce the likelihood of infection. For this you need:

• give up random sexual relationships that may cause infection with all types of lice
• avoid contact with unfamiliar children
• do not communicate closely with homeless people living in unsanitary conditions
• avoid crowded places
• do not use other people's hygiene products and clothing
• to be attentive in public transport, to avoid "suspicious characters."

And of course, you need to carefully monitor your feelings and the behavior of loved ones. Itching, constant scratching of the head, anxiety are all signs that a person may be bitten by lice.At the first such manifestations of a child or adult, it should be examined and, if lice are detected, start treatment as soon as possible.
 

Interesting video: how wrong and how to properly get rid of lice