How head lice are transmitted and symptoms of infection

Head louse is one of a subspecies of the parasite called human louse. This insect has a fairly small body size. With the naked eye, it is practically invisible. Therefore, the moment of infection occurs imperceptibly for a person and he will learn about the appearance of insatiable bloodsuckers already when the insects have already multiplied, and the disease has acquired significant proportions.

Pediculosis - symptoms, causes, treatment

A head louse, parasitizing on a person, causes a disease in him, called head lice. Everyone can get lice sick, since there are no boundaries that can contain parasites. Small and inconspicuous, they cause a lot of suffering to a person, and the cause of infection can be bathing in a pond or someone else's comb with which you combed your hair.

Symptoms of the disease

Signs of head lice:

• itching
• scratches and wounds from scratches;
• insect eggs - nits;
• adult lice and their larvae.

Main symptoms head liceThis is itching and nits. Itching is one of the first signs that you should pay attention to. It occurs even with a single infection with an insect. However, it may be due to skin disease or some type of allergy.

Adult insects are difficult to see. They have very small body sizes and inconspicuous coloring, helping them to disguise themselves. If the colony of lice is also small, then the task becomes almost impossible. It is impossible to find a small gray louse among a thicket of thick hair.

Nits are small whitish eggs of lice. They are located on the roots of the hair and are clearly visible on the head. If at least one fertilized louse lives on a person, then her eggs can be easily detected with an ordinary comb.

A minor sign of head lice are wounds and scratches. They appear as a result of intensive combing and, in turn, can cause inflammation of the skin, the appearance of ulcers and sores.

Advice! If lice are found on the head, do not hesitate to remove them. Scratches and wounds resulting from scratching will make chemical treatment impossible. In this case, getting rid of insects will become much more difficult.

Causes

How do lice appear on the head? This can happen as a result of several reasons, the main of which are:

• contact with a person with pediculosis;
• swimming in public ponds;
• sharing personal items like a comb, towel, hairpin, hat.

You can get infected even by public transport if an infected person was driving next to you. The head louse moves pretty quickly and easily moves from one person to another. For transmission, one short touch of the heads is enough, which you may not even notice in the crush.

The carriers of the disease are mainly people who do not follow the basic rules of personal hygiene, and also who have not taken showers for months. For example, tramps and homeless people on the body can find a huge number of parasites, including head lice. Causes of lice infestation:

• crowded people;
• unsanitary living conditions.

Such a feature even became the reason for the myth that head lice allegedly turn on from dirt and arise from dust. This conclusion is far from the truth, since it has been scientifically proven that head lice, as well as their larvae, cannot live outside the human body for more than 2 days, respectively, cannot live on the floor and from there crawl onto people.

So to summarize how do head lice appear and where do they come from:

1. Lice appear as a result of the transition of an adult insect from the head of an infected person to a healthy one.
2. For pediculosis disease, it is necessary to catch at least a pair of heterosexual parasites, or an already fertilized female.
3. You can get infected by picking up the nits, but such a louse will not leave offspring and after a certain time will die childless.
4. There is no difference to which layer of the population a person belongs. Both poor and rich suffer from pediculosis.

Interesting fact! The oldest louse was found in the plumage of a bird that lived about 44 million years ago.

Treatment

What are head lice afraid of and how to treat head lice? Perhaps the most effective way to combat parasites is to completely remove vegetation from the infected area of ​​the body. However, this method is not always acceptable. Agree, a bald woman looks, to put it mildly, somewhat unusual, so you can use more democratic methods of treatment, namely:

• the destruction of lice with the help of special drugs;
• mechanical removal with a frequent comb or comb.

Separate conversation, these are small children with a head louse in their hair. Chemical treatment is not acceptable in this case. It’s best to cut your hair shorter and pick insects by hand. Pregnant women can use the frequent scallop.

Advice! Before combing lice, it is advisable to grease the hair at the roots with vegetable fat. It will facilitate the removal of nits and protect the scalp.

Spread

Head louse is one of the most common types of insects of the Pediculus genus. Annually, more than a dozen million cases of head lice are registered worldwide. We can say that the head louse is the cosmopolitan of the globe. However, this type of parasite prefers moderate latitudes, since the optimum conditions for its development is a temperature of about +30 ⁰FROM.

However, in colder regions, head louse feels great. A man himself saves her from frosts by putting on warm hats and downy scarves. In addition, the normal temperature of the human body is approximately +36 - +37 ⁰C, and even without a warm hat, the louse will not freeze, clinging to warm skin.

How lice look in the hair on the head and how to get rid of them, see this video: