The Brickley Center

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Head Lice The Facts-Not Fear

• The Brickley Center

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General Information

• Anyone can get head Lice!
• Anyone can be misinformed and give you incorrect
  information even your mom and dad
• Lice have nothing to do with
• Personal Hygiene
• Shower Habits, Cleanliness of Hair or Rooms
• Health
• They do not carry diseases
• They do not make you sick

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• Lice cannot jump
• Lice cannot fly

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You CANNOT get Lice from

• Talking to someone
• Sitting next to someone in class
• Using the common bathrooms or showers
• Eating in the Cafeteria
• Walking through the hallways

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How can you get head lice?

• Lice are spread through Direct Contact including
• Direct hair to hair contact
• Lying on someones bed or couch
• Sharing anything that goes on your head
  including
• Hats or scarves
• Brushes / Combs
• Jackets
• Hoodies
• Towels
• Sheets and Pillows
• Stuff animals
• Clothing that touches other articles of clothing
  example if you throw your hoodie sweatshirt on
  a friends couch or bed sheets

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Life Cycle of a Louse

• An egg is called a nit, and lice lay their eggs
  right up next to the scalp to incubate them
• Eggs / Nits hatch in 7-10 days
• The lifespan of lice is about 30 days
• Lice only live on human heads they do NOT live
  anywhere else on the body, or on animals

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Survival of a Louse

• If a louse falls off the human head, they live
  only 24-48 hours. They need to attach to a human
  head to live
• If a strand of hair falls off with a nit on it,
  the chance of survival is very low, since they
  need warmth and a human head to live
• They do not walk well on smooth surfaces

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Treatment-hair

• If youre found to have lice, you need to buy
  special lice shampoo to treat your hair
• FOLLOW THE LICE SHAMPOO DIRECTIONS PERFECTLY, and
  wash 1x with the shampoo as directed
• The Lice shampoo is very potent, so you DO NOT
  need to use the shampoo again for 5-10 days,
  depending on the directions on the packaging for
  retreatment
• Most products used to treat head lice are
  pesticides that can be absorbed through the skin.
  Therefore, all medicines used for the treatment
  of lice should be used with care and only as
  directed Quote from CDC

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Treatment hair (cont)

• Most treatment products recommend that you NOT
  wash your hair for 1-2 days after treating hair
  with lice shampoo
• Once youve shampooed, you need to comb your hair
  thoroughly with a special lice comb 1x a day for
  the next 7-10 days.
• When combing, take a small section of hair (its
  easier when its wet), and starting with the
  scalp, comb from the scalp to the end of the
  hair. They Nits will not come off unless you
  come them all the way off from the scalp to the
  ends of the hair.
• If anything comes off on the comb, dip the comb
  in hot, soapy water and wipe the comb off with a
  paper towel
• If you have long hair, it will take a long time
  to comb through it all, up to a couple of hours.
  

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Treatment hair (cont)

• It is very important to comb your hair piece by
  piece every day for 7-10 days straight. Do NOT
  skip this step.
• If youve been treated with shampoo once and you
  find more nits / lice as youre combing through
  every day, you did NOT get lice again. You are
  just finding more nits/lice that you missed the
  first time. Just keep on combing!
• If possible, you must wash your bedding, jackets,
  hoodies, hats, and clothing youve worn in Hot
  Water and you must dry those items on High Heat.
  
• If you cant wash something, seal it in a plastic
  bag for 2 weeks
• Throw away items such as combs, brushes hair
  accessories (if cheap), wash the items in hot
  water (130 degreeshotter than tap water), OR
  seal them up in a plastic bag for 2 weeks
• Vacuum all items that cannot be washed- furniture
  carpet

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Treatment-belongings

• If possible, you must wash in Hot Water your
  bedding, jackets, hoodies, hats, and clothing
  youve worn and you must dry those items on High
  Heat.
• If you cant wash something, seal it in a plastic
  bag for 2 weeks
• Throw away items such as combs, brushes hair
  accessories (if cheap), wash the items in hot
  water (130 degreeshotter than tap water), OR
  seal them up in a plastic bag for 2 weeks
• Vacuum all items that cannot be washed or sealed
  up- furniture carpet

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You do NOT need to

• Use the lice shampoo as prevention
• Use the lice shampoo more frequently than is
  directed
• Spray furniture with pesticide or call pest
  control (Specific CDC Recommendation)
• Use hairspray or gel in your hair to prevent lice
  the hairspray actually makes it more difficult
  to comb through the hair and the residue can be
  mistaken for lice.

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Quote from CDC

• Use of insecticide spray or fogs is NOT
  recommended. Fumigant spray and fogs can be toxic
  if inhaled or absorbed through the skin and they
  are not necessary to control head lice.

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Detection

• When looking for lice on someones head, have the
  person sit on a chair in front of you and have
  them look down at their stomach
• Start looking in the most common places around
  the base of the head/back of the neck and around
  the ears (where the head is the warmest)
• Split the hair down the middle and take 1 small
  section of hair at a time, moving it over,
  looking at the scalp, before moving onto the next
  section of hair
• Every time you move a section of hair, you MUST
  check the scalp
• Go through the whole head of hair carefully

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Detection (cont)

• When looking for nits, theyll be white or
  yellow tiny specks and can be mistaken for
  dandruff, scabs or hair spray droplets
• If you see something that looks like a nit, rub
  it or flick it to see if you can get it off. If
  it comes off or disintegrates, it is NOT a nit
• If it doesnt come off, isolate the hair and grab
  what you see and see if you can move it up and
  down the hair shaft like a bead on a string
• If it does this, you have probably found a nit
• CONTINUE checking through the hair, starting
  again at the base of the neck and around the
  ears, working your way up the head
• If you find several Nits or Lice, you need to
  treat the hair with Lice Shampoo

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Are you being re-infested?

• If youve been treated with shampoo once and you
  find more nits / lice as youre combing through
  every day, you did NOT get lice again. You are
  just finding more nits/lice that you missed the
  first time. Just keep on combing!

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What does the MDPH say?

• Health Services has discussed this issue with
  both the Quincy Department of Health and the
  Massachusetts State Department of Health and they
  are making the same recommendations to ENC as
  were making to you.

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Conclusion

• Visit these 2 websites for more information
• http//www.cdc.gov/lice/head/factsheet.html
• http//www.hsph.harvard.edu/headlice.html