The Lice-Buster Book

"A wonderful book. My nine-year-old daughter came home with a head full of unwanted visitors. We treated her six times but I couldn't get rid of them…. At the library I found your book. After I followed your directions we finally won the battle! I work at a small elementary school and it is my duty to check heads four to six times during the school year. I'm challenged to make a better system for checking, treating, and educating parents and students, and will [now] use your book."

—Teresa Myers, Carlton Elementary School, OR

"Much valuable information … an excellent research text."

—Ann Solomon, nurse, Mill Valley School District, CA

"I'm ordering three books so I can keep one and donate two to our elementary school. Your book fulfills a very important need. Thanks for the book."

—Andy O'Connell, MA

"This book is wonderful. After reading it, I felt all the information given to me by pediatricians, nurses, etc. paled in comparison to your book."

—Sue Muratori, NY

"Informative and humorous…. This book is great."

—Andrea Brown, RN, Roanoke County Schools, VA

"A delightful book that should add some 'light' laughter to a mom's life. A good review for school staff and a good teaching aid."

—Julie Bertrand, RN, Trinity-Messiah Lutheran School, TX

"I ordered this book because it was so informative. We went through a recent bout of head lice here and it was wonderfully helpful and put to rest a lot of myths and concerns."

—Jo Lasdaskly, St. Joseph School, IL

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If you purchase this book without a cover you should be aware that this book may have been stolen property and reported as "unsold and destroyed" to the publisher. In such case neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this "stripped book."

This book is not intended as a substitute for medical advice. The reader should regularly consult a physician or health care professional in matters relating to health and particularly in respect to any symptoms which may require diagnosis or medical attention.

Warner Books EditionCopyright © 1995 by Lennie CopelandAll rights reserved.

This Warner Books edition is published by arrangement with Authentic Pictures.

Warner Books, Inc., Hachette Book Group, 237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017, Visit our Web site at www.HachetteBookGroup.com

A Time Warner Company

First eBook Edition: October 2001

ISBN: 978-0-7595-2629-7

Cover design by Jill DaveyInterior design by Lory Poulson

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for Ashley and Ian

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A book like this requires few acknowledgments because there are few who know anything about lice. So I am in great debt to Professors David Taplin and Terri Meinking at the University of Miami School of Medicine, for their hard work researching lice and willingness to share their expertise, answer my questions, and review a draft of the book.

I also thank John Poorbaugh, ectoparasite specialist retired from the California Department of Health Services, and Dr. Dennis Juranek, an expert on pediculosis at the Centers for Disease Control, Andy Sopchak at Burroughs Wellcome, and pharmacist Steven Bacon of Lawson-Dyer Pharmacy, for many hours discussing lice and the various treatments.

Two nurses who deal with lice in the schools reviewed a draft of the book and I thank them for their help: Trish Bas-com, Head Nurse in the San Francisco Unified School District, and Ann Solomon, Head Nurse of the Mill Valley School District, in California. I also thank Bridget Ward, PhN, Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, for the information she provided.

Several schools participated in a survey of the lice problem among their students. They wish to remain anonymous, but are thanked for their vital help. Shirley Freeman, Director of Kit-tredge School, is particularly thanked for her open, immediate, and enthusiastic assistance with the survey in her school.

Most of all, I thank my children, Ashley (13) and Ian (8), for lending me their heads and cooperating so patiently with my research. May they remain lice-free forevermore!

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INTRODUCTION

Why a book about head lice? Because every year 10-12 million children get lice. If you bought this book because you are dealing with head lice in your own family or school, rest assured, you are not alone. Pediculosis (presence of lice) strikes more children than all communicable childhood diseases combined, excluding the common cold. The schools are in a state of perpetual lice alert. Health professionals say the problem is endemic and epidemic. Pharmaceutical firms report double digit growth in sales of pediculicides. According to Information Resources Inc., in 1995, Americans spent $115,830,660 on lice treatments! This may be good news for the pharmaceutical firms, but many of you who must deal with lice are at your wits' end.

Ants, wasps, rats?
Get the exterminator.
But for lice, who you gonna call?

Unfortunately, frantic parents and school personnel have had nowhere to turn for reliable information about what to do about head lice. There are no books on the subject and only scant information in public health agency brochures that always advise, "Consult your pediatrician." But most pediatricians don't know any more about lice than the average parent, and many know less. After all, doctors don't study lice in medical school.

Of course, there are the occasional back-to-school articles about lice, offering the same outdated, unhelpful, and even incorrect information that is recycled in health department brochures, school handouts, and pharmaceutical packaging. To make matters worse, the instructions on lice treatments are often unclear and incomplete, resulting in misuse, reinfestation, and secondary complications. It seems nobody really knows much about lice. Myths abound, parents rely on folklore, and lice flourish.

How can it be that so little is known about such a widespread problem? One reason is that lice are not a reportable disease so health agencies have no mechanism for epidemiological study. Moreover, lice are not a popular subject for scientific research because head lice cannot be cultivated off the human head and few researchers are willing to raise lice on their own bodies. Rumor has it that most lice researchers are divorced!

Thankfully, there is a handful of committed researchers around the world who are willing to put lice on themselves for what they matter-of-factly call "blood meals." One group is the Field Epidemiology Survey Team at the University of Miami School of Medicine. Professors David Taplin and Terri Meinking have been studying lice all over the world. Many of their findings on the habits of head lice have been included in this book.

THE LICE-BUSTER BOOK aims to demythologize lice and to furnish the information you need to gain control of the lice problem in your community and your home. It provides step-by-step procedures for treating lice infestation. It also makes suggestions for schools because parents can't do it alone. A child can't be completely protected from lice except by isolation; as long as any children in an environment have lice, all are vulnerable.

Chances are the problem can't be completely eliminated: lice have survived since Neanderthal man. No treatment is guaranteed 100% effective and no amount of precaution can completely prevent head lice. One lousy louse may slip through. So this book can't guarantee you will never see another louse. But if you follow the instructions in this book precisely, you will see the end of the nerve-wracking, costly, time-consuming struggle with chronic lice infestations that threaten to drive you mad!

Anyone can get licel

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CHAPTER 1

Lice Styles of the Rich and Famous

THE STIGMA OF LICE