Pediculosis pubis (pubic lice) is a disease caused by the parasite Pthirius pubis, which infects human pubic hair. In addition to the genital area, it can affect other areas covered with hair. It is estimated that this disease affects about 2% of the world's population.
The pubic louse is a small insect about the size of a pin. It is from 1 to 3 mm long and has 6 legs. It is characteristic that her hind legs are thicker than her front legs with large claws. The louse cannot jump and feeds exclusively on blood. Humans are the only known hosts of this parasite. Adults are affected more often than children.
Life cycle of pubic lice
Lice lay eggs most often in the area of coarse hairs in the genital and anal areas of the human body. Less common on the chin, mustache, eyelashes, eyebrows or armpits. They generally don't affect the hair because the hair is much softer than the slightly coarser hair areas above.
The female lays eggs three times a day. The larvae hatch from them after 6-8 days. It takes up to 25 days for the adult stage to form. They feed exclusively on blood 4–5 times a day. Their lifespan is about 30 days.
Where do lice come from and how to deal with them
2018-09-15 City Disinfection Station
Pediculosis is a fairly common disease that is caused by small blood-sucking insects - lice. Most often you have to deal with head lice, which find refuge in human hair and become the cause of lice or, what is much more dangerous, typhus, since they are its carriers. Despite the fact that the standard of living of people is constantly increasing, according to world statistics, the percentage of infection with this disease, even in developed European countries, is not decreasing.
What is a head louse?
A louse is a small blood-sucking insect that cannot fly or jump, but thanks to the structural features of its clawed legs, it moves easily and nimbly in human hair. It prefers to inhabit mainly the occipital, parietal and temporal zones of the head, but as populations increase, they occupy the entire area. This small, elongated parasite has a body 2–3 mm long, light gray in color, which changes to brownish-brown when saturated with blood, and can also masquerade as hair color.
Insects are highly fertile; one adult female lays 10 eggs daily - nits, which after 12 days turn into a full-fledged insect and the cycle repeats again. During her life (28–30 days), an adult female manages to lay up to three hundred nits, firmly attaching them to her hair with a special adhesive substance that is not affected by detergents and frequent combing. Therefore, if serious measures are not taken to combat them, the population will grow exponentially.
Methods and symptoms of infection
You can only become infected with this unpleasant disease through contact from another person. This can happen while traveling in public transport, especially crowded ones, and can be transmitted through clothing, underwear, and combs. Most often, head lice occurs in children of preschool and school age, regardless of the well-being of the family and their attitude to hygiene, since children's games contribute to very close communication.
It is quite difficult to quickly determine the appearance of lice, since due to their size and agility they are difficult to see with the naked eye. But a number of signs may indicate their presence:
- A person is bothered by severe and frequent itching of the skin under the hair.
- New red dots or small pustules constantly appear.
- A rash may appear under the hair on your neck.
- Lice can cause swollen lymph nodes.
- You can find small shiny light-colored or hair-colored hard balls firmly attached to the hair.
If at least one of these signs occurs, you should immediately examine your hair, preferably with a magnifying glass. If a louse is found, it is necessary to begin treatment immediately, since delay threatens the complete occupation of your hair by parasites. However, if you are unsure, visit a doctor.
How to identify lice
If you suspect that your child has lice, you should sit him in a well-lit place and carefully examine his head over a table covered with a white cloth or paper. It is very difficult to notice adult individuals, since they are very active and quickly hide from the light, but you can see their eggs, which in the form of oval shiny light balls are firmly held on the hair near the root. In order not to confuse them with dandruff and debris, try to shake them off; this is impossible to do with nits; they are even difficult to remove with your hands. Wet your child's hair and begin combing the hair with a special fine-tooth comb.
How to cure pediculosis?
If lice are found, contact your pediatrician, who will recommend an effective and reliable remedy. Today, pharmacology offers many chemical agents to combat lice; they are available in different types and consistencies. These can be lotions, shampoos, sprays with different percentages of toxins, and therefore effectiveness. Therefore, choosing the safest means is not always rational, since treatment will require a very long time and a large number of treatments.
The effectiveness of treatment depends on the correctness of its implementation. The selected product is applied to the hair strand by strand from the roots and along the entire length of the hair and left for a certain time, it is indicated in the instructions for use. In order not to harm the child, it is not worth increasing this time due to toxicity. Then the product is washed off and dead insects are combed out of wet hair. If after the procedure you find a live louse, it means that somewhere the process was disrupted or the product was ineffective.
It must be said that it will never be possible to get rid of unpleasant inhabitants in one treatment, no matter how effective the drugs are, since they kill only adult individuals, while the nits remain alive and unharmed. They are protected from the effects of many chemicals by a durable chitinous shell, so you can only get rid of them by combing them out. To ensure that nits come off the hair easily when combing out, it is recommended to moisten the hair with a vinegar solution (1 part vinegar 9% diluted with 2 parts water). The acid softens the adhesive that attaches the eggs, and they easily fall away under the comb.
Therefore, hair treatment will have to be carried out several times every 7 - 10 days, usually 2 - 3 times are enough. The main thing is to have time to destroy the newly hatched individuals before they reach sexual maturity. If lice are found in one family member, then everyone needs to be checked and a one-time treatment is carried out for prevention.
How to prevent lice
It is simply impossible to protect yourself and your children 100% from the appearance of lice, but minimizing this is quite possible. To avoid infection, you should not use other people's personal belongings, such as combs, towels, and hats. Also visit untrustworthy hairdressing salons and spa salons, periodically check the hair of all family members, especially children after holidays in camps and at the beginning of the school year.
Author of the material: Vladimir Egorov
Disinfector Experience in the field for more than 7 years
Symptoms of lice
The main symptom of lice pubis is itching in the pubic hair area, which occurs as a result of hypersensitivity to the saliva of the pathogen. It becomes more intense over two or more weeks of infection and occurs more often at night. Characteristic gray-blue spots may sometimes appear in the affected area as a result of the bite. An infected person may see small gray-white insects crawling around or small oval yellow or white lumps (eggs) on the pubic hair.
Danger of bites
First of all, the danger of lice bites is characterized by the symptoms of the disease itself. Itching, burning, pain when touching the damaged area create great discomfort. A person loses social adaptation, since treatment requires isolation so as not to infect others.
It is most difficult for young children, under the age of 5, to suffer from lice. During this period, they experience serious changes in the immune system, and their overall body temperature rises. Children are unable to control the itching and scratch the wounds until they bleed.
In both children and adults, the nervous system is noticeably disturbed, irritability appears, sleep deteriorates, up to its complete loss. With massive damage, you can observe serious allergic reactions, rashes all over the body, swelling of soft tissues and significant enlargement of the lymph nodes.
We recommend reading: the best remedies for lice and nits in children.
There are also complications with pediculosis - pyoderma. This term refers to purulent skin lesions, when after bites a hard crust forms on the skin, and a purulent abscess occurs under it.
Of course, all these complications and inconveniences are nothing compared to the real problems that unexpected guests can cause. Lice are carriers of such serious diseases as typhus (typhus and relapsing) and Volyn fever. All diseases are infectious in nature and can cause serious complications. You can read about the dangers of lice and the consequences of head lice on our website.
Treatment of pediculosis
Treatment is local, using permethrin preparations or shampoos containing permethrin or lindane. Pregnant women should avoid shampoos containing lindane.
It is imperative to examine and, if necessary, treat the partner, because sexual transmission, despite the use of condoms, is very high, since the condom does not cover the entire genital area where pubic lice may be located.
In addition to treatment, it is recommended to boil and dry towels, clothes and bedding at high temperatures. Abstinence from sexual intercourse is advisable for 24 hours after treatment.
How to get rid of linen lice: effective methods
Linen or, in other words, body lice are a tiny insect (but unlike the species that prefers to live in hair, they are larger) that have good survival in an aggressive environment. It is difficult to remove such “uninvited guests”. Insects prefer to hide in warehouses of cotton linen, seams of wardrobe items (dresses, shirts), blankets, mattresses. If you have established that there is a linen lice in the room, how to get rid of it is a logical question that should arise first of all. Why? These insects pose a serious danger to human health.
Details about the process
The main feature of lice is the presence of sharp stylets, into which ordinary jaws once evolved. They are powerful and well developed. Allows insects to quickly pierce the skin and find a blood vessel. Due to the fact that lice are not equipped with a long proboscis, when absorbing food they have to slightly raise the back of the body and immerse their head as deeply as possible into the resulting wound in order to reach the vessel.
During the absorption of blood, the insect injects a special enzyme into its victim. It prevents the liquid from coagulating and makes it easier to absorb. In the future, the same enzyme, acting on the nerve endings in the skin around the bite, will cause itching and redness. In larvae it is practically not produced, therefore, their bites are not so noticeable and painful.
Transfer methods
To avoid the question of how to get rid of linen lice, a person should be well informed about the reasons for their appearance. As a rule, parasites are transmitted in several ways:
- when using other people's contaminated things;
- when storing wardrobe items together. For example, spontaneous second-hand stores, where clothes are not disinfected, are extremely dangerous in this regard;
- in the crowd (subway, municipal buses). In case of close contact in crowded places, especially in summer, parasites can easily migrate from the clothes of a sick person to an uninfected cotton blouse or sundress.
Body lice can also be transmitted through water. For example, in a public pool or natural reservoir, they can survive up to 48 hours.
Complex events
To completely get rid of parasites and prevent re-infestation, it is necessary to carry out a whole range of measures that will help destroy body lice. If they managed to reproduce, then some individuals probably ended up not only on clothes, but also on the bed, bedding, and personal belongings. Also, nits and parasites can be found on floors, curtains, carpets, so you cannot do without treating the entire apartment.
Fighting methods
How and with what can you disinfect linen and wardrobe items if parasites are found? Recommendations on how to remove linen lice at home:
- Things should be washed thoroughly, rinsed in tansy broth and left to dry in the sun. Next, iron them. And then not wear items of clothing for at least another week. Next, the clothes should be washed again and left to dry in the sun for another couple of days.
- Bags of milkweed should be placed in cabinets - insects cannot stand the smell of this herb.
- You can apply lavender oil to a clean body after taking a hot shower. This is a good means of preventing parasites.
- It is recommended to wash the floors in the house with water and turpentine. Shelves and tables can be treated with a solution of cranberry juice. It contains a number of acids that are effective in the fight, especially against small parasites, popularly called nits.
How else can you get rid of linen lice at home? Linen (bedding and underwear) can be soaked in water with the addition of karbofos emulsion (5 g of a substance of 30% concentration is added per 1 liter). Things can also be immersed in a 20% solution of laundry soap and kerosene for about 30 minutes.
