From staff reports
TRUSSVILLE — The time of year is now for lice, and unfortunately for those affected by it, traditional treatments are not working as well as in the past according to a report from the Montgomery Advertiser.
Lice can affect anyone, but it is mostly prevalent in children, partially because children make more contact while playing, the report says.
Now with fall coming up, it is the prime time for louse to begin affecting its hosts, and that usually coincides with the beginning of school.
There are 25 states nationally where over-the-counter medicines are beginning to see less effectiveness, and Alabama is one of those states. Research presented by Kyong Yoon, who is an assistant professor of biological and environmental science at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, at a meeting of the American Chemical Society showed lice have developed a high level of resistance to those treatments.
The Advertiser reported Yoon and his team found lice have developed a gene mutation known as knock-down resistance against the pyrethroids — a widely-used class of indoor-outdoor insecticides — making them useless against the insect. Yoon tested 109 lice populations and 104 of them were resistant to the pyrethroids.
Sara McClendon, founder and owner of Remove-A-Lice (RAL) in Trussville and Hoover, said this isn’t something those who study the species are surprised to see.
“They’ve been resistant for a while,” she said. “In the professional lice world, that’s not new information. Yes, they are evolving, but they’re all evolving.”
McClendon compared it to a bacterial infection becoming immune to antibiotics.
“If people overuse it, and use it when they don’t need it, that’s when it becomes ineffective,” she said. “The key to getting rid of lice is getting in there and removing it all.”
McClendon’s company does that specifically. She said her treatment is to use an all-natural product to slow the louse down, and then comb them out before going strand-by-strand to make sure nothing remains.
“People are freaking out about (the resistance), but we’re not because we’ve always known (medicine) isn’t going to kill all the bugs,” McClendon said.
Trussville City Schools sent a letter home to each parent regarding lice and the procedure parents should follow in the event a child has been infected.
In the letter, it details tips on how to control lice outbreaks and how to treat a child when he or she has been affected. They also show parents a video on how to treat.
Jefferson County schools nurse supervisor Tameka Hines said the school system also sends home a letter detailing how to with lice and treat it. Hines said she recommends using a nit comb after treating with medicine, although it can be painful, it’s the most effective way for home treatment.
Some reasons treatments aren’t working, however, may be fixable by those treating at home, such as not using conditioners in hair after washing with the medicine. Conditioners can keep the lice medicine from adhering to the hair shafts, reducing the effectiveness of the treatment, according to the Advertiser. Following the instructions carefully is also very important, including second treatments. Not performing a second treatment or performing one too quickly or too late can affect the medicine.