While parents need to check more regularly for head lice, it is important that they do not treat children unnecessarily for them, an Eastern Health Board expert said yesterday.
Dr Mary Ward, EHB area medical officer, said parents should not only check for head lice during an outbreak but should also check once a week "because lice are so common".
There was a stigma attached to head lice, she said, but it was a common childhood complaint.
A recent survey found that there were many myths about the condition. Dr Ward said the anxiety over the condition was out of proportion. Yet if an outbreak occurred in a school, only 46 per cent of parents said they checked their child's head for lice.
Almost half of those questioned said they would apply a head louse lotion to their child's head as a precaution during a school outbreak. "This is not to be recommended as there is no benefit in treating something that is not there and subjecting the child to these insecticides. Treatment should only be given if you find live moving lice."
She said it was also unnecessary to keep your child from school during an outbreak. "It simply does not make sense. At any one time, their may be a small percentage of children in a school with head lice."
Some 90 per cent of people questioned in the Seton Lice Elimination System survey wrongly believed that head lice were mainly picked up in school or that adults did not get head lice. "It is a community problem. Adults form quite a large reservoir. Head lice are not harmful. They prefer clean hair and, while they can be picked up at school, they are just as easily acquired in the community from where they are brought into school on the heads of unsuspecting children."
She said if people were routinely checked for head lice, treatment could be initiated earlier.
Dr Ian Burgess, of the Medical Entomology Centre in Cambridge, which specialises in the study of insects, said only insecticide treatments could effectively kill lice and eggs.
"These contain tiny amounts of insecticide which are harmless to humans but effective against head lice. The latest advice is that lotions and liquids are the most effective.
"However, because head lice can develop resistance to insecticides, it is now recommended that treatments be alternated using what's called a `mosaic policy'. This means that if an individual or member of a family has been treated with one class of insecticide for a full course of treatment, subsequent treatment should involve another class of insecticide," said Dr Burgess.
He said when using a head louse treatment, instructions should be followed carefully. Dead lice and eggs should be combed out with a special nit comb. A second application should be administered seven days after the initial treatment.