Pediculosis is a parasitic disease caused by lice, which can be epidemic in nature and pose a danger to all social and age categories of the population. How to understand that you have lice is capable of anyone who has faced such a problem at least once in his life. After all, it is almost impossible to forget about the unpleasant sensations that cause great discomfort. Knowing how to detect lice gives you a chance to prevent the spread of the disease early on.
Infection symptoms
The first way to identify lice in your head is to feel the symptoms. The initial period of infection has a short phase with mild symptoms of lice infestation. Light scratching at the bite site quickly turns into irritating itching.
Insects feed on blood, and in order to gain access to it, they pierce the skin and inject a special substance. It prevents blood from clotting and causes irritating scratching.
The bite is accompanied by a light prick, but if a small number of lice live in the head, then an infected person may not notice itching.
Rending combing the head begins after the hatching of more than a dozen lice. Itching does not go away after shampooing, becomes more frequent at night, and the person constantly fiddles with his head.
Gradually the symptomatology expands... Constant scratching of the affected areas leads to the appearance of blood on the skin. In advanced situations, areas of the skin are driven out, formations appear that are similar to small boils. Prolonged head lice leads to hardening of the skin and pigmentation.
How to find out if there are lice on the head: another characteristic external sign will help to determine head lice - the larvae of lice in the head. Nits sit firmly on the hairs. Usually, the larvae attach at a distance of 1 cm from the hair root.
Preventive actions
To prevent lice from appearing, it is necessary to observe personal hygiene: do not use a comb or a friend's headdress, avoid sexual contact with casual partners. If one of your child's friends shows signs of head lice (scratching), it is advisable to limit contact and notify the parent.
It is quite difficult to protect family members from lice if they are often on the move, communicate with a large number of people, and live in the field for a long time. In this case, a person who has returned from a business trip, hike or camp should wash, and if there are signs of parasitosis, treat the hair with medications. His things are disinfested with appropriate means.
The human louse is sensitive to high temperatures and severe frosts. The prevention of body lice includes washing bed linen at 60 degrees or drying it in frosty air. You can do this with other things as well. It is also necessary to constantly iron things. The process kills nits and eliminates the development of the incubation period.
Personal hygiene and using only your own accessories are important components of head lice prevention measures. When lice are spread in children's institutions, it is necessary to disinfect furniture and carpets.The prevention of head lice does not give a complete guarantee that infection will not occur, but if you know the main routes of transmission of the disease, this will reduce the likelihood of infection with parasites.
How to understand that you have lice on your own?
Localization of parasites... Usually, finding parasites in the head is not difficult if the head of an adult or child is regularly examined as a preventive measure.
There are certain areas where insects develop most intensively. It is from these places that they spread throughout the head, so they need to be examined immediately if you suspect head lice. These include the occipital region and the temples.
So how do you know if you have lice? Pay attention to the back of the head and temple area, as well as behind the ears and on the neck.
Nits... Just a couple of days after infection, nits become noticeable, but adults do not always come into view.
They do not have the ability to quickly move from visible areas. The parasites are characterized by a special attachment of nits - one larva on each hair. A small number of larvae are not immediately noticeable, especially for head lice in children with blond hair.
They can sometimes be confused with dandruff at an early stage, but when squeezed, the capsule with the larva emits a bursting sound, which is not typical for keratinized skin particles. Nits have an oblong spindle-shaped shape not exceeding 0.8 mm. There is a small seal at the end of the formation.
Lice... How to recognize head lice? An adult insect is sometimes difficult to identify. The light gray color and small size are almost invisible, so parasites are often identified by the presence of nits. The average size of a louse is 2-3 mm, but it can be up to 4 mm.
Bites... How do you know if you have lice? In places of insect activity, slight redness appears. They can be single at the initial stage and multiple, if head lice is started.
Constant irritation of the skin causes severe itching, which leads to redness at the bite sites and even swelling. In some cases, an allergic reaction may develop.
Assistance with examination for head lice... Sometimes it becomes difficult to independently identify lice if suspected. Then it can be done with the help of another family member.
Also, parents should regularly conduct a preventive head examination of children who have contact with peers in a kindergarten or school.
Comb application... How to find out if lice are in the head using a comb? A tool with small teeth will allow you to quickly identify nits, and also subsequently comb them out.
But brushing alone will not be enough to remove adult parasites. The louse easily disappears between the teeth, and then finds its way back to the hair.
Locating and combing out lice on a wet head... Before you understand that lice have appeared, got started and happily live on your hair, we recommend that you wet your head. With wet hair, it is easy to identify lice, as they remain immobile when exposed to water.
When brushing, the teeth should reach the hair roots and lightly touch the skin. The comb is carried out from the skin along the entire length, and then it is examined for the presence of nits and lice.
If at least one individual is seen, then the person is sick with head lice. After each passing through the hair, the teeth are thoroughly wiped off with a napkin or rinsed with water.
How to properly diagnose a parasitic skin disease?
The human louse is a blood-sucking parasite. It can inhabit the scalp, folds of things and the pubic area. These are different types of head lice. The insect does not exceed 4 mm in length. It is light brown in color, it can be transparent.
When bitten, the parasite secretes saliva, which contains a substance that causes severe itching of human skin. For this reason, scratching occurs, which, when healed, become crusted.
The period when a person discovers signs of head lice can be up to 30 days. This is considered the incubation period for head lice. The second stage of the disease is its identification. It is better to entrust the diagnosis of head lice to a doctor.
The initial place of localization of lice on a person's head is the occipital and temporal zones. Over time, the parasites spread throughout the scalp. In this case, the head type of head lice is diagnosed.
The maturation of eggs in the body of the female occurs on the 9-10th day and depends on the heat of the human skin. If the temperature is less than 22 degrees, the nits do not mature. In this state (on objects or things), they can last for about a year. A nymph (larva) appears from a ripe egg on days 20-22, which differs from an adult in the following signs:
- body size;
- lack of genitals;
- color;
- low activity.
We suggest that you familiarize yourself with: How to find out if you have lice on your head: symptoms and signs of lice
For two weeks, the nymphs grow and develop, turning into sexually mature individuals. Oviposition of parasites continues without interruption, with additional mating occurring. The female lays nits all her life (38 days), and stops 24 hours before death.
Pubic lice (ploshchits) belong to the order of blood-sucking and live on the hairy parts of the human body. The disease in humans is called phthiriasis. Often, parasites live in the genital area, around the anal canal, in the armpits, in the hairy parts of the chest and abdomen.
In some cases, pubic lice have been found in the beard and eyebrows. They feed on human blood, and without food they die after 24 hours. In addition, being outside the habitat, the insect is capable of falling into a state of suspended animation, that is, slowing down life processes. In this form, the pubic louse can be for several months.
You need to treat the disease with a doctor. Preventive measures for head lice (disinfection, personal hygiene, ironing) will help prevent infection.
The pathogen lives on clothes, and lays nits there. It feeds on blood, for this it moves to the human body. Clothes head lice occurs in people with an antisocial lifestyle who ignore the rules of personal hygiene, as well as in people without a fixed abode.
The dressing parasite weighs no more than one gram, while sucking out a lot of blood (1-3 μl) due to the ability of its stomach to stretch. Females are larger than males and therefore eat more.
A distinctive feature of the parasite is the presence of a proboscis on the muzzle, with the help of which it sucks blood. The organ works as a pump, while the insect secretes a special substrate that prevents blood clotting.
To identify the first symptoms of head lice, it is enough to part the hair on the head and examine it in good light. Visual inspection will determine the presence of nits and parasites.
Secondary symptoms of the disease are scratching of the skin, as well as sticky hair. If, upon examination, only a single individual without nits is found, head lice is still diagnosed.
The very first sign of head lice is the appearance of small wounds - marks from parasite bites. In particular, quite often they can be seen in the occipital and temporal regions, as well as near the ears.
In some cases, the bitten site is infected, which is accompanied not only by deviations in the condition of the skin surface, but also by the appearance of a new sign of lice in humans - swelling of the lymph nodes.
In addition, if a person neglects the rules of personal hygiene, eggs and lice secretions cause a rather unpleasant odor and tangled hair. This causes a greater deposition of nits and, therefore, an acceleration in the reproduction of parasites.
Also, you should not start the treatment process - the disease can spread rather quickly, both in the family circle and among other people.
Lice are special varieties of parasitic insects that live on the hairy parts of the human body or in his clothes. If the infection has occurred recently, they are difficult to detect by visual inspection. The size of an adult insect is only 2-3 mm, and the patronizing coloration makes it unobtrusive.
Moving in search of food, they crawl on the skin, but the structure of the paws allows them to firmly hold onto the hair shaft. In clothing, parasites at rest are hammered into the seams and folds of the underwear.
The parasites feed on the host's blood, piercing the skin with a piercing-sucking mouth apparatus adapted for this. It is often possible to determine the presence of insects in a child or an adult by the unpleasant sensations that lice deliver when bitten.
Lice parasitizing on humans.
Saturated lice become brighter, reddish brown or orange. It is easy to see when examined, and in sparse blond hair (for example, in a child), you can also notice it by accident.
The insect in such cases resembles a miniature bug.
An adult female lays 7-14 eggs daily. During her life (about 49 days), she alone can leave abundant offspring. Eggs (nits) resemble small whitish balls firmly adhered to the hair.
Depending on the habitat, there are 3 types of human lice:
- head, lives only on the head, does not occur in underwear or on other parts of the body;
- pubic, or ploshchita, lives on the pubis and in the genital area, anus, in the armpits, sometimes on the eyebrows and eyelashes;
- wardrobe, settles on underwear and clothes, eats on the body in places where the clothes fit tightly to the skin.
We suggest that you familiarize yourself with: Sleeping lice on your head
A disease in which lice parasitize on the head and body of a person is called head lice (head lice or body lice).
A lesion of the skin with pubic lice is called phthiriasis. It is classified as a sexually transmitted disease, because sexual intercourse is the most common way of getting parasites.
Symptoms of the manifestation of head lice
What to do if head lice is confirmed?
Of one combing parasites is not enough... It is necessary to apply timely and competent treatment for parasites with special drugs. The procedure for detecting lice is described here.
In addition to eliminating adults, nits must be carefully removed... In a few days, they will be able to develop into adults, capable of producing new offspring and causing complications.
Treatment for parasites is carried out at home. There are three ways to eliminate lice in total, but for greater efficiency it is better to use a combination of chemical and mechanical methods.
Currently, there are a lot of modern drugs in the pharmacy that quickly cope with the disease. If head lice is observed in a child, then the further choice of means is better to agree with the pediatrician. It is necessary to act in accordance with the instructionsto avoid inefficiency.
An important point is adherence to dosage... If this fact is ignored, any person may experience an allergic reaction to the active ingredients.
The most acceptable and less traumatic for the child is the use of aerosols. They are easy to apply and quickly kill adult insects. Known lice preparations have no effect on nits, you will need to get rid of them manually.
Find out how you can treat lice and nits from this article.
What are the most effective home treatments?
Pediculosis can be treated at home, but you need to decide on a way to deal with parasites. The pharmaceutical market offers a wide range of shampoos and preparations that effectively fight lice. With self-treatment it is necessary:
- isolate the patient during treatment;
- choose an acceptable remedy (folk or from a pharmacy);
- carefully study the method of application and instructions;
- adhere to dosages for children and adults;
- use the drug carefully, avoiding contact with the eyes;
- rinse the product thoroughly from the hair.
Any agent against lice requires careful use - the composition contains insecticides with a very pungent odor. It is important to observe the concentration of the drug. Children under 2 years of age and pregnant women should be prescribed treatment by a doctor. The treatment of the affected areas is performed following certain rules:
- conduct an allergy test (apply a little product on the wrist, check after 2 hours for irritation);
- the procedure must be carried out in a ventilated area;
- distribute the composition along the entire length of the hair, excluding contact with the eyes and on open skin areas (it is better to use a protective visor);
- put a plastic bag cap on your head in order to create the conditions for a greenhouse;
- withstand the required time;
- wash off the mixture and rinse your hair with a vinegar solution;
- take a fine-toothed comb and comb out your hair to get rid of dead parasites.
We suggest that you familiarize yourself with: Lice in a child: how they appear, what to do and how to get rid of, signs, treatment, medications
Detected head lice requires immediate treatment, as it rapidly progresses and is transmitted to others. To combat lice, funds from a pharmacy based on insecticides or enveloping compositions are suitable: shampoos, gels, aerosols, ointments, sprays.
Chemicals affect the nervous system of parasites, causing their death. Pediculocides are allowed to be used by patients from 2 years old. The composition of drugs may contain the following substances:
- fenthion;
- malathion;
- permethrin;
- pyrethroids.
More safe for humans drugs based on cyclomethicone or dimethicone. After applying the active substances of pediculocidal agents to the hair, insects block access to oxygen, creating a thin airtight film around them.
Combing is a mechanical means of combating head lice at home. This method was used by our great-grandmothers. You will need a comb that has enough teeth to prevent the parasites from sneaking through.
The combing is performed as follows:
- wash your hair with regular shampoo;
- rinse clean hair with vinegar and water and dry;
- planted with head lice with his back to the bathroom;
- first, comb out the occipital zone, separating small strands;
- periodically wash the comb with vinegar;
- in this way, comb the entire head.
The method is good because absolutely all patients can be cured - it does not cause allergic reactions. The negative point is that it is possible to remove lice and get rid of head lice by performing such actions for several days in a row. Throughout the month, combing must be repeated after each hair wash.
As far as shaving head is concerned, this method is not currently practiced. There are many ways to fight parasites that will help you preserve your hair.
Folk remedies
A person who has not encountered this problem is concerned about the question of where lice comes from and how they get infected with it. Pediculosis has been known to mankind since the days of ancient Egypt. There are a lot of folk remedies to combat even advanced head lice. The most famous are:
- Applying kerosene or turpentine with vegetable oil (1: 1) to the hair roots, after which you need to put on a plastic cap for 30 minutes, then thoroughly rinse the product, select or comb out the nits.
- Vinegar, lemon juice or cranberry juice destroys the egg structure and kills the larvae.
- Washing your hair with tar soap gives a good effect, but you need to do the procedure several times.
- Hair dyeing at home can cope with head-type parasites.
- Infusion of burdock and elecampane is suitable for young children and expectant mothers. The product must be used to wash your hair.
- The use of hydrogen peroxide is suitable only for adults, while the hair color can lighten by half a tone. Distribute peroxide diluted with water 1: 1 over all hair and let stand for 10 minutes. Then wash your hair with shampoo. Peroxide eats away at parasites and their eggs.
Mechanical lice removal
After using any product, be sure to comb out all the nits. It is recommended to do this in bright light, slowly fingering small strands.
It is important not to miss even the smallest nits.... For a more effective procedure, it is recommended to use folk remedies.
Acidic environment well eliminates nits - lemon or cranberry juice, vinegar. They must be diluted with plain water before application.
A good result is also noted when using laundry soap.
Combing out nits is a time-consuming process that requires patience, especially when head lice is running.
Types of diseases
A disease in which the skin and hair of a person is infected with lice is called head lice. The name comes from the Latin pediculus, "louse". There are head lice, pubic and underwear lice, since a person can be parasitized, respectively, by head lice, pubic and underwear lice.
Pediculosis
Mixed head lice may also occur, when, for example, an infection with head and linen lice occurs at the same time. When neglected, head lice can lead to dermatitis - serious damage to the skin.
Forecasts
You can get rid of lice quickly, in just one session of the drug and mechanical treatment. With prevention, the risk of head lice is minimized. But there are complications from the long stay of parasites in the head.
Pyoderma... Most often, in unfavorable situations, purulent skin lesions develop. It is the result of numerous bites combing, if there are many parasites. Infection of the wounds leads to a deterioration in the general condition and an increase in body temperature.
Complicated infections... Lice are a source of serious and dangerous diseases. Thanks to medications, the occurrence of typhus and Volyn fever has been reduced to zero.
What complications can arise?
Complications of head lice can be very diverse. When neglected, complications may appear in the form of purulent wounds in the places of scratching and severe itching that interferes with sleep. Pediculosis is dangerous because dermatitis, papular urticaria, eczema appear on the head or on the body, and a coccal infection joins. Lymph nodes may enlarge.
The human louse is a carrier of diseases dangerous to humans. Now only 3 types of infections are known:
- quintan;
- relapsing fever;
- typhus.
Combing out
Comb treatment is an integral part of any treatment, whichever product is chosen. This is due to the fact that the complete removal of nits and dead insects is possible only with such a rough mechanical action.
A good brushing comb meets a number of requirements:
- small distance between the teeth;
- the teeth themselves are made of metal;
- they should have notches to increase hair tenacity;
- the handle must have an ergonomic shape.
Combs of the AntiV and NitFree brands meet these requirements more than others.
How to comb out lice correctly? The combing procedure should be carried out under a bright light source, the head to be treated should be placed on a white towel so that the insects to be removed are easy to notice.
Each strand is worked through with a comb in the direction from the base of the hair. The process can take from half an hour to two hours. After working through all the strands, the insects and their eggs are disposed of, and the anti-lice comb is disinfected in hot water or alcohol.
Prophylaxis
Infection with parasites occurs in a contact-household way.
- Pediculosis is easy to get infected when using common hairbrushes, towels, hats. Everything should be individual.
- Remember that lice are transmitted from a sick person to a healthy person, by touching their heads.
- If there are cases of infestation with lice in a childcare facility (school, kindergarten), it is better to temporarily limit its attendance.
- You can not swim in the same water with infected head lice - in it lice remain viable for a long time.
- It is worth avoiding small crowded reservoirs.
- Conduct preventive examinations in children.
- Be vigilant after spending the night in questionable places (hostel, train).
Observing precautions, you do not have to get acquainted with head lice.
Folk ways
In those days, when there were no special preparations for the destruction of harmful insects, they used improvised means: vinegar, kerosene, tar soap, hydrogen peroxide. These products have side effects and should be used with extreme caution.
Kerosene and vinegar should not be used on children. Kerosene is fire hazardous and causes intoxication of the body. Vinegar on delicate baby skin can cause burns.
To use kerosene, it is necessary to dilute it with oil in a ratio of 1: 6, apply to hair, for 40 minutes and rinse. After that, the hair will smell bad for several days.
Reasons for the appearance of head lice
How to find out about a head lice infection? It is no secret for a long time that in places where there is a special "overcrowding" of people, it is quite likely that they are infected with various parasites, especially lice.
Contrary to popular belief, not only unclean people are susceptible to head lice infestation, lice can be acquired by prosperous citizens.
The main reason for the appearance of lice is the close communication of a healthy person with an infected person. The infected person does not immediately discover this fact - after some time, when the parasites have already multiplied.
Lice can hide from human eyes for a long time, thanks to their small body size and the ability to quickly move along the hairline.
To recognize the presence of lice, you need to know the features by which you can "calculate" the presence of this living creature.
A little about pests
There are three types of lice. They come from the same family, although they have some differences:
- Head... You will find head lice on the scalp, hair, neck, and behind the ears. Eggs are laid closer to the hair roots, where it is warm and humid.
- Wearable, or wardrobe... They settle in clothes or bedding, lay eggs there, and crawl onto a person for food. Then they come back.
- Pubic... They are called "crabs". You can find them on pubic hair and skin. They lay eggs on the roots of the pubic hair.
