TRURO – Just the thought of head lice can make people feel itchy, so imagine what it would be like to have a head full of the tiny blood-sucking bugs crawling around.
Dawn Mucci, spokeswoman for Lice Squad Canada, said winter is one of three periods of the year when head lice is prominent, along with the first week after children return to school after summer break and the days following March Break.
“There are a few factors contributing to an increase in the number of cases of head lice,” said Mucci. “There is a major break in the winter when children are traveling around visiting family members away or at care centres and they can pick them up in those environments.”
She said during the winter hats and coats are sometimes piled up, creating a transmission issue and people are in close contact for longer periods of time inside buildings.
Carolyn Pierce, spokeswoman for Chignecto-Central Regional School Board, said head lice is seen at schools throughout the year but is noticed more predominantly in the weeks following summer vacation.
She said the school board does not track the number of cases reported to schools.
“Because it is not a communicable disease the schools are not required to contact public health,” said Pierce.
She said schools take every possible precaution to respect the dignity of students affected by head lice, while notifying parents and guardians of an infestation.
“Schools are very aware there is a real social stigma attached to having lice,” she said.
Mucci said often head lice is wrongfully considered a condition suffered only by poor or uncleanly people.
“Lice is a human condition,” she said. “It affects everyone of every race and economic status.”
She said one of the missions of her business is to stop the stigma and the use and over abuse of pesticides to treat the lice.
Mucci said the spread of head lice can be prevented with education and regular head checks.
“The most important thing is to avoid head-to-head contact or sharing hair items,” said Mucci. “Do regular checks because if it’s been there two months it’s going to be difficult to get rid of.”
She said there are preventative products such as shampoos containing tea tree oil, which works as a repellent, but they are not 100 per cent effective.
“A real key to prevention is to talk to your kids about head lice, how they can get them,” she said.
There are a number of dangers caused by over exposure to pesticides such as those found in traditional over the counter lice shampoos.
“They should only be used as directed and if it doesn’t work after the second treatment, the fourth, fifth or sixth isn’t going to either,” said Mucci.
She wants people to know there are natural alternatives and help to cope with lice infestations with the expansion of the Lice Squad in the Truro area.
She said some pharmacies and health food stores are starting to carry enzyme-based, bridgeable, non-toxic solutions that kill lice by breaking down their exoskeletons, along with dissolving the resilient glue which hold nits to strands of hair.
She said there are other natural methods but they are time consuming such as smothering hair with coconut or olive oil for about four hours, or manually removing the tiny bugs.
Each year lice find their way onto the heads of 2.4 million Canadians.
“It just keeps increasing, it’s not going away,” said Mucci.
She would like to see the Department of Health change its position on lice from considering it a pest to regarding it as health risk and step up efforts to help control the spread of it.
“These are bloodsucking insects going person-to-person,” she said.
“People are scratching
open wounds with dirty finger nails raising the risk of a serious infection.”
Lice Squad offers free advice and assistance to contain outbreaks can be contacted at 1-888 LICE SQUAD (542-3778) or people can browse information on their Website www.licesquad.com.
