Lice at school - where to complain and what to do to protect your child from head lice?

Pediculosis is one of the highly contagious diseases. The appearance in the collective of one infected with parasites is fraught with rapid infection of the rest.

What is the reason for the high prevalence of parasitic disease? Human lice do not have the ability to move long distances, they cannot fly, jump, but in view of the need arises, unpleasant insects can move quickly.

The high rate of spread of head lice between people is due to the fact that the disease is transmitted through close contact, with the help of clothing, household items.

Let us consider in detail the questions about whether lice can jump, which is the reason for the high level of infectiousness of this unpleasant disease.

What are lice?

Lice are small, highly specialized external parasites that live on the scalp and other parts of the host's body. They have a short translucent body with a small head and chest, three pairs of legs and a relatively large belly. The wings of lice are reduced, which is most likely associated with a parasitic lifestyle.

Answering the question of what color a person has lice, it is worth noting that it changes depending on saturation. In the normal state, lice are light gray, almost whitish in color, but when they suck blood, their color changes to dark red. The louse feeds exclusively on blood, which it sucks from the owner with the help of a special mouth apparatus in the form of two piercing needles. During a puncture, a special substance is injected into the human skin that prevents blood clotting, which causes severe itching.

Lice are excellently adapted to parasitizing: their strong legs are equipped with sickle-shaped claws with which they cling to hair.

Their body is capable of withstanding a load of up to 1 kg. Despite their small size (2-3 mm), they move very nimbly along the host's skin, not allowing themselves to be captured. The average lifespan of lice is 38-39 days. They feed 2-3 times a day, while the female lays from 6 to 13 eggs per day. Needless to say, if the treatment is not carried out, human life will soon become simply unbearable.

How insects spread

Individuals always live in places of large concentrations of people. The risk category includes residents of hostels, camps, boarding schools, etc.

The transmission of an insect to a person is as follows:

Creatures move from one personality to another in close interaction.
Insects also spread through household items, getting on the body of their victim.
Individuals spread through the use of common things, especially headdresses.
Occasionally, bloodsuckers live on bed linen, from where they move to other people.

It is worth realizing that the carriers of parasites are persons with any number of insects on the head and body, even single... With a high intensity of damage, the likelihood that individuals will fall on furniture increases. Accordingly, the risks of infection increase significantly.

Interesting to know! Bloodsuckers live in water bodies and can be transmitted to humans by bathing.

They are able to survive in the aquatic environment for about two days. And here different species, both body lice and head lice, conduct their rapid life. In this way, you can also become infected with cercariosis, the symptoms of which must be known in order to correctly establish the diagnosis.

You need to carefully examine your towels, if you are somewhere in the resort, do not take other people's things, do not let anyone use their accessories, hats.

It is worth saying that nits are rarely a source of infection. Lice are a great danger to others. Now let's see if lice can jump.

Do lice jump?

Another important detail - do the lice jump or crawl, or maybe they fly? Lice do not jump or fly. They have enough tenacious paws to grab hair, but they are not adapted to jumping. Lice have wings, but they are reduced, and parasites do not use them in any way.

Therefore, answering the question whether lice jump or not, it is safe to say that lice only crawl. Due to this, they cannot be transmitted from person to another over long distances, therefore, subject to a certain distance, it is quite possible to communicate with an infected person.

There are three types of lice - head, pubic and bed lice whose signs differ little from each other, except that head lice live in the scalp, pubic, respectively, on the pubis and legs (provided there is vegetation). Linen (bed, clothes) lice are a very rare phenomenon, unlike the other two species, but sometimes they still occur.

When a louse parasite appears, the body symptoms are as follows:

it is the largest of all types of lice (measures in length from 2.2 to 4.6 cm);
unlike relatives, it sucks blood on open areas of the skin;
body lice have relatively long antennae and a smoothed, without pronounced segments, large abdomen.

The linen louse lives mainly in the folds of the underwear. It is dangerous because it is a carrier of diseases such as typhus and relapsing fever. To get rid of linen lice, it is enough to treat the clothes with an insecticide and wash them well (or boil them). It is also important to air the laundry in the sun for a week after processing.

Do you also believe in myths?

Some people, especially the "old school", think that lice can not only crawl, but also jump and fly.

Well, of course, this is also easier to explain the increased infectiousness of head lice. Do you believe that too?

If you think that these blood-sucking parasites have such abilities, then you are mistaken.

Lice, in fact, cannot jump, they only crawl. Why? Now I will explain in the next paragraph of the article.

Debunking myths, or how lice are not transmitted

Drits Irina Alexandrovna. Parasitologist
Helminthiasis can lead to numerous health problems, shortening life by 15-25 years. Many parasites are extremely difficult to detect. They can be anywhere - in the blood, intestines, lungs, heart, brain. Symptoms of helminthic invasion can be confused with ARVI, gastrointestinal diseases and others. The main mistake in such cases is procrastination! If you have any suspicions about the presence of parasites, then you need to contact a specialist. More information about modern methods of treating helminthiasis is described in this interview with a doctor... If we talk about drugs and self-treatment, then from the most common helminths (ascaris, pinworms, tapeworms), this antiparasitic complex.

There are a lot of myths about lice, and some of them are so strong general stereotypes that their refutation causes real bewilderment.

This has been said before. Lice do not know how to jump and do not jump from head to head.

Myth 2. Lice are spread in dirty apartments from a distance

Lice cannot be transmitted from a distance.And the sanitary condition of the premises itself can only indirectly affect their transfer (after all, in such apartments, basic rules of personal hygiene are often not followed).

Head lice appearance

Myth 3. Head lice are transmitted only from children

An absolutely unfounded statement - head lice are equally active in infecting and passing on to both children and adults.

Myth 4. Lice are transmitted only through intercourse.

Pubic lice are transmitted during intercourse. Head parasites can be transmitted both through sexual contact and simply through close physical contact - hugging, wrestling, mother caring for a child.

Myth 5. Lice are spread from pets

This misconception is so common that lice on pets should be discussed separately.

How, then, is pediculosis transmitted?

How are lice spread from person to person? There are the following, the most common methods:

Personal items - towel, comb, hairpins, combs, hats.
Underwear, bed linen.
Lice cannot move in jumps, at night they move from a pillow, blanket, bed linen to their head, where they develop further.
Sexual contact is especially a pubic parasite, in addition to it, there is a possibility of catching a head, which together will lead to the development of diseases.
Contact with water - Swimming in polluted areas, especially stagnant water, often leads to infestation with various parasites, including lice.

Through items of personal use, lice often occurs among kindergarten kids, schoolchildren, because children can exchange personal things, comb them together.

Lice can be transmitted by putting on someone else's clothing - bottom, top. This is common among teenage girls, so you can only take things from a person if you really have trust.

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If there are infected people among the environment, you should contact them less. Especially not to allow close proximity, exchange of things, household items, personal, since there is a high chance of infection.

Do lice pass from animals to humans?

Neither the so-called dog or cat lice are transmitted to humans. This is due to the characteristics of lice and lice in general - each type of these parasites is strictly specific to its host and cannot live and inhabit other animal species.

On cats lives a feline louse, on dogs - a dog, and in everyday life they are called lice only for the similarity in appearance with a human louse. But getting on the body of an animal of another species, including humans, these insects quickly die.

Lice in dogs are not transmitted to humans, even through close contact, when, for example, an animal sleeps with a person on a bed. By the way, lice in cats and dogs are not transmitted not only to humans, but also to these species from one to another - that is, a feline eater cannot live on dogs, and a dog's louse cannot live on cats.

And if something jumps around the house, what could it be?

All available means have been tried in the fight against lice, and the problem of head lice arises again. What's the matter?

Blood-sucking insects are able to live and reproduce not only on human hair - this is a fact.

Lice live in pillows and other textiles. By carefully studying the information about the habitat of parasites, you can quickly find ways to destroy them.

Lice live in textiles, namely:

clothes;
bed linen;
upholstery of sofas, armchairs;
pillows (and not always feathers).

The causative agents of head lice feed only on human blood. Consequently, their habitat is closely intertwined with human skin.

The most common type of parasite is the head louse.As a rule, it lives in the hairline, but it also happens that the parasite settles in bedding, for example, in pillows.

Linen lice can go without food for a longer time. Therefore, they can most often be found:

on clothes, in particular on underwear;
on upholstered furniture (the soft upholstery of the sofa and bed is especially susceptible to damage);
on bed linen (pillows, blankets, mattress).

The body louse lives only on clothes. As soon as a person puts on an infected outfit, small blood-sucking insects immediately begin to bite him.

It is important to understand that the causative agents of head lice are not always populated in bed linen and pillows. Fleas and bedbugs often infest textile items. You can distinguish some representatives of the order of parasites from others by the following features:

The flea jumps, but the louse does not.
Lice nits can only be seen in thick hair, and clothing parasites leave nits in the seams and pockets of clothing.

We recommend reading: the types of lice, what unites and distinguishes them.

If in your house or on your body you notice exactly jumping insects, then you are faced with fleas. It is fleas that can tell about the house and even the body of a person, as well as bite him and bring a lot of uncomfortable sensations.

Now you know who is jumping: fleas or lice, and I hope you will no longer confuse these parasites, since the differences are obvious.

Could lice appear due to "nerves"?

The appearance of lice against a background of stress is a myth. Nervous experiences have nothing to do with head lice, especially if there was no contact with an infected person. Under the influence of stressful situations, itching may appear, which is one of the symptoms of head lice. But for this disease, the presence of other manifestations is necessary.

However, during the period of experiences, the hormonal background of a person changes, the sweat glands work more actively, and the blood pulsates more strongly. Therefore, such a person is more attractive to these parasites.

Treatment

We have examined in sufficient detail what lice are. How to get rid of this parasite? Directions for combating head lice:

Combing (mechanical removal method).
Specific drugs to fight the parasite.
Prevention in people who have close contact with the patient.
Disinsection.

Please note that the use of special drugs for head lice is contraindicated in some groups of people:

Pregnant and lactating women.
Small children.
People with skin diseases.

As for combing, then before that you should definitely wash your hair with conditioner. This makes the nits much easier to separate because the hair becomes smoother.

How are lice spread in children and how quickly do they spread?

The largest number of diseases occurs in children of school and preschool age. This number is due to the fact that children are in more contact with each other than adults. Outdoor contact games, changing clothes, using a variety of accessories such as hair ties and headbands - all this increases the risk of infection several times.

Head lice outbreaks usually occur in September, when children come to school after vacations. Pediculosis spreads instantly. Therefore, as soon as the child has lice, he is not allowed to attend classes.

In kindergarten, the situation is similar to school. In addition to contact games, small children, due to their age, can mix things up and use strangers. Also in preschool institutions there are sleeping rooms with closely spaced beds.

Where to go if you find head lice at school

At the state level, there are rules adopted by the Sanitary and Epidemiological Service (SES) in each city and which must be adhered to by all administrative services of children's educational institutions. They indicate that in any children's team, incl.and school, it is forbidden to take children affected by head lice.

When, upon examination, a health worker or teacher discovers lice, the first step is to inform the parents of the infected student and implement recommendations on how to treat the child from parasites and indicate how many days he will not be able to attend school.

Checking for lice

The law establishes a certain order of actions for pediculosis at school, which provides for the creation of sanitary and hygienic conditions to prevent the spread of parasites:

regular examinations by a nurse or teachers of all students should be carried out, the data is recorded in the log of examination for head lice;
do not allow children with head lice to study, i.e. the answer to the question whether it is possible to go to school with lice is only negative;
recovered students can start classes only by bringing a certificate from a doctor about the absence of lice and nits.

According to the new SanPin, there are also preventive measures at school, legalized by the rules and regulations of the SES, which must be carried out in child care institutions: conducting examinations for lice after each vacation and monthly selectively in some classes. Parents are often interested in the question: where to complain if there are lice at school. By law, parents are obliged to notify the school administration, which will solve this problem.

The nurse must notify the SES, which will register this case. Then a lice quarantine is carried out at the school, which usually includes an examination every 10 days for a month for all students.

The procedure for pediculosis at school is regulated at the legislative level. The main document is SanPiN 3.2.3215-14 "Prevention of parasitic diseases on the territory of the Russian Federation."

School staff have no right to disclose information about a sick child.

The nurse notifies the school principal of the identified case and checks all students in the class. If it turns out that this is not an isolated case, the information is reported by the school to the SES (at present this body has been abolished, the receiver is Rospotrebnadzor). Together with him, the issue of quarantine is being resolved and disinfecting treatment of the school is carried out.

Where to contact?

In a fit of feelings and striving to protect their child, parents seek to contact all possible authorities, but it is better if the order of treatment is as follows:

School nurse and class teacher.
School administration and director.
Department of Education and Rospotrebnadzor.

The transition from the first instance to the subsequent ones should occur only in the case of ignoring the treatment or in the absence of measures to prevent the spread of the disease.

Example of appeal

Frequent outbreaks of head lice in educational institutions are a medical and social problem. The solution to this issue can be adequate only with well-coordinated interaction of parents, school staff, medical and preventive organizations.

Getting rid of lice is a long and difficult process

Indeed, it used to be a difficult process, especially for girls. After all, everything was used: from cutting beautiful long hair under a hedgehog, to folk remedies.

Now, for the treatment of head lice, it takes only a few minutes, modern drugs take care of the scalp and allow you to keep your hair intact. Especially if you have chosen a quality and proven product.

Currently, one of the best drugs for the treatment of head lice is Couple Plus.

Couple Plus Is a product that contains three effective active ingredients (malathion, permethrin and piperonyl butoxide). They penetrate well through the chitinous cover of both adult lice and nits, which allows you to completely get rid of head lice after the first use of the product.The three active ingredients in the preparation potentiate the action of each other, which makes them effective in the fight against insects that are resistant to other remedies for head lice. In addition, this combination can reduce the application time to just 10 minutes!

Couple Plus is produced in the form of an aerosol, which makes it easier to use for any hair length, and can be used in children from 2.5 years old.

You just need to apply it to dry hair along the entire length, timed for 10 minutes and rinse off with regular shampoo. After that, it remains only to comb out the dead lice and nits well.

If the child's hair is long and thick, there is a chance that some parts of the head and hair will be missing during treatment. Therefore, in such cases, it is advisable to repeat the procedure after 5-7 days.

Prevention measures

To protect the child from head lice and to protect all other family members, it is necessary to take a set of measures:

avoid large crowds in public places;
collect hair in a tight bun or braid, use a headdress;
do not use other people's hygiene items;
protect the child from communicating with children from disadvantaged families, with strangers;
regularly treat combs, combs, hair accessories with soapy water.

Essential oils, shampoos, soap with a smell that repels lice can be used as a prophylaxis for head lice.

In educational and preschool institutions, a scheduled examination by a doctor for lice is carried out. If insects are found, parents are notified and recommendations for their removal are given. For the duration of treatment, the infected person is exempt from visits to the institution and is allowed after the presentation of a certificate confirming the absence of parasites.

Lice prophylaxis also includes informing parents about the causes of head lice, how it spreads and how it is treated.

If lice have been identified at home, parents should report this to the institution that their child visits. Such a measure is necessary to prevent the spread of head lice. However, given the attitude of society towards lice, it is rare for a parent to announce a problem.

At the state level, there are rules adopted by the Sanitary and Epidemiological Service (SES) in each city and which must be adhered to by all administrative services of children's educational institutions. They indicate that in any children's team, incl. and school, it is forbidden to take children affected by head lice.

Checking for lice

The law establishes a certain procedure for pediculosis at school, which provides for the creation of sanitary and hygienic conditions to prevent the spread of parasites:

regular examinations by a nurse or teachers of all students should be carried out, the data is entered in the log of examination for head lice;
do not allow children with head lice to study, i.e. the answer to the question whether it is possible to go to school with lice is only negative;
recovered students can start classes only by bringing a certificate from a doctor about the absence of lice and nits.

The nurse must notify the SES, which will register this case.Then a lice quarantine is carried out at the school, which usually includes an examination every 10 days for a month for all students.

Parents should know how to protect themselves from head lice at school and what preventive measures can be taken:

during the period of mass illness, the child's head should be examined daily;
girls with long hair should wear it in a braid or a safer "bun";
brush your hair daily with your brush and wash your hair regularly;
do not allow your child to play with children who have some symptoms of head lice infestation;
You can protect yourself from lice and the child with the help of essential oils that repel insects: ylang-ylang, tea tree and other prophylactic agents.

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Where do they crawl from?

Parasites are transmitted in two ways: 1) after close contact with an infected person, 2) after using common things. Cephalic, pubic and underwear individuals are especially quickly transmitted in crowded areas. Adds the risk of contamination unsanitary conditions. According to statistics, head lice appears most often after visiting communal apartments, barracks, refugee camps.

Here are the main ways lice can be transmitted:

It is possible to contract the disease from a person with whom they share a common bed. The risk of infection from a husband or wife is 99%. During sexual intercourse, the likelihood of infection with pubic species is 94%.
Getting children's head lice can occur after visiting school, kindergarten, camp or other place where children communicate closely (therefore, children are constantly checked in schools and kindergartens).
Head lice pass to people after sharing towels, combs, hairpins. A person infected with head lice will definitely have parasites in hats and scarves - these things should not be worn by a healthy man and woman.
Head species are rarely transmitted through body clothing. And the clothes (linen) just get turned on in clothes (which are not washed or ironed).

Sometimes people become infected through furniture used by a person with a parasitic disease. As a rule, lice cling tightly to the hair, and only one or two individuals with a massive infection can fall and crawl.

Are pets a source of infection?

Like any other organisms, these parasites instinctively try to preserve their kind. Therefore, they begin to multiply actively. At first, not everyone can feel the presence of lice on their body. After all, they bite weakly, and there is no need to actively move around the body.

During this period, the larvae actively grow and feed. Therefore, a person begins to itch all the time. Unbearable itching over a period of time gives people a wide variety of assumptions, from stress to allergic reactions to food or cosmetics. But very soon the real cause of the itching becomes clear.

The first sign of lice is itching.

During this period, young individuals move very quickly and it seems that the whole head and body itch. That is why the assumption arises that lice jump or fly.

One female can lay 200 - 300 larvae per month, so that if the treatment process is delayed, the number of lice on the body of one person can increase very quickly.

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Having discovered that fleas are jumping in a dog or cat, many begin to think that insects will quickly jump onto their bodies. Calm down, fleas are not transmitted to us! These are different animals (they are parasites that feed on blood, go through a similar period of development, reproduce equally quickly, but this is where the similarities end).

These parasites have a different appearance, which is clearly visible in the photo (fleas are small and dark with a rounded body and long legs, and head, pubic and linen lice are transparent with short limbs). Fleas can also jump, but lice cannot jump. But the most important difference is that insects do not overlap in food sources.

To summarize: head, pubic and linen lice are transmitted only through close contact with infected people or through shared household and personal hygiene items. They cannot jump and only crawl. Cat and dog fleas can jump. But such bastards are not transmitted to people, more precisely, they can jump on a person, but they will not live on the body (they will immediately jump onto the floor or onto an animal).

It is worth remembering: places of mass congestion with high unsanitary conditions are especially dangerous. Lice are transmitted there especially quickly (in such places, insects can crawl anywhere). Once on the human body, the bugs begin to multiply rapidly - it is important to detect signs of head lice as soon as possible, and start treatment. We will talk about the symptoms of lice infestation and how to get rid of insects in the following articles.

Known misconceptions

It is necessary to refute popular misconceptions about ways of infesting lice:

lice only start on dirty hair. Scientists have proven that in reality everything is the opposite;
only children can become infected. In this regard, parasites are absolutely inert. The age of the person does not matter;
lice jump very long distances, just like fleas. Also wrong.
These insects can neither jump nor fly. That is, they can only run from one person to another;
infection occurs through domestic animals. A common louse cannot exist on the body of a cat or dog. For reproduction, it must be on the human body.

There are a whole lot of other myths about how people get infected with lice, but it is worth remembering that transmission is possible only through close contact or by sharing some personal items (combs, curlers, outerwear).

Also, on the question of how you can become infected with head lice, I would like to separately mention that the transmission of lice during sexual intercourse is also possible, but this is explained by the same close contact, in which insects easily move from one body to another. And just a few parasites will be quite enough so that in 2-3 days a whole column will form on their head.

Thanks to the information presented above, you know what lice is, how this disease is transmitted from a sick person to a healthy one, and now let's talk about the process of infection itself.