Lousy summer causes headlice epidemic amongst children AND adults
Filed under: Advice and health
Alamy
Britain's lousy summer has led to an explosion of cases of headlice amongst children – AND adults!
The humid conditions have proved ideal breeding conditions for the insects. And now there are even fears the problem could be made worse – by the Olympics.
Experts fear the crowds will put people's heads into such close proximity the lice will be springing from head to head like Gold Medal-contending gymnasts.
Ian Burgess, director of insect research and development at the Medical Entomology Centre, told the Evening Standard: "We have had lots of damp weather and our studies suggest this has caused a higher level of lice than normal.
"The weather has also meant more children indoors and in close contact which has increased the speed at which the infestation has spread.
"Currently our research suggests about 10 per cent of pupils in a school have nits, which in an average primary school is about 40 at any one time.
"Chances are this is also being passed on from these children to their siblings and even their parents, who in turn can pass it on to their colleagues at work and fellow commuters.
"Lice have also built up some resistance to treatments such as pesticides, so the incidence of lice has risen dramatically over the past few generations."
Dee Wright, who runs a north London company called The Hairforce which specialises in lice-busting treatments, said:
In this weather, there is a big pick-up, there is a lot around. We have heard from our clients, talking about schools where their children are, that there are real problems, and everybody is desperate for term to end so they don't have to deal with them.
Head lice spread mainly through direct physical contact with a carrier but can also be caught from objects they have crawled onto from a carrier.
Over half of Britain's four to 11 years olds catch lice every year and £33 million is spent on products annually showing head lice is already at epidemic levels among children and those close to them.
Parents take 2.78 million days off work each year and children miss 2.73 million days of school because they are infested with the itchy insects.
Although there are many products available over the counter, lice are immune to them 80 per cent of the time.
Roll on summer holidays!!
10 things to make you lose your cool with kids
- A broken window<p> How many times have you told him not to play football by the kitchen window? Does he ever listen?</p>
- You never got the letter about parent's evening<p> What’s the point of giving you a crumpled letter with the date and time of parents’ evening the day after it’s taken place?</p>
- Muddy footprints on the carpet<p> You spent a whole hour yesterday hovering the whole house, and now there’s a trail of brown footprints all the way from the front door to the kitchen….</p>
- Chickenpox<p> Everyone says you can’t get chickenpox twice. But you can, you can. Or else your horribly spotty six-year-old is a medical miracle.</p>
- Your child loses a left shoe<p> How? How is this possible? Will the school let her wear trainers? Or will she just have to hop?</p>
- Ripped school uniform<p> No, it’s not possible to do an invisible mend from the ankle to the thigh - and why was your innocent-looking child scaling a six-foot wall in the first place?</p>
- Missing sports kit<p> Just because you feed the washing machine every single day, it doesn’t logically follow that you know the exact whereabouts of her swimming costume/tracksuit/gym kit.</p>
- A reduction in child tax credits<p> You haven’t put jam in their sandwiches for the past six months. Now you might not even be able to afford the bread…</p>
- Your child needs cash at 8am - and your purse is empty<p> It’s for the school trip that she didn’t tell you about last week - and today is the last day for handing in the money…</p>
- Your child has nits - again<p> You spent all last week with a nit comb and bottles of cheap conditioner, and sent your little darling off to school with shiny hair free of insect life. But other parents haven’t bothered. And now you have to go through the whole thing all over again…</p>
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