Word: lice
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...PICKING Getting rid of lice from your kids' hair may be more difficult than ever. A report that looked at two cities, Boston and Boise, Idaho, shows that the pesky six-legged parasites are increasingly resistant to permethrin, the active ingredient in Nix, a popular over-the-counter remedy. What to do? Doctors suggest that you try commercial preparations; if these fail, ask your physician for a prescription pesticide. Or forget pesticides altogether, and try products with "delipidizing agents," which are found in health-food stores...
...joys of childhood are timeless: Swing sets, birthday parties... the occasional school-wide outbreak of head lice. It used to be that a quick dose of a foul-smelling mixture called permethrin (Nix, Rid) and a fierce comb-through were enough to annihilate the bloodsucking pests and their eggs, but now those days of relative ease may be over. According to the results of a Harvard University study of 75 lice-infested children, some lice are no longer susceptible to over-the-counter medicines traditionally recommended by pediatricians. And so kids who come home with a case of head lice...
...lice becoming hardier? According to TIME medical reporter Janice Horowitz, the Harvard study results revealed a correlation between over-treatment and resistance. "The researchers looked at kids in two American cities, Boise and Boston, and compared them with kids with lice in Borneo. In Borneo, where few or no pesticides are used, lice were killed very quickly by an application of permethrin. In Boise and Boston, the lice were far more resistant to the pesticide, having been exposed to the chemicals before." Horowitz notes that an increased dose of the lice-killer in Borneo destroyed the parasites faster, whereas...
...tedious task of nitpicking seems oddly out of date in an age when modern medicine has made so many gains against maladies far more serious than lice. Why, 20 years ago, a bottle of Kwell, a hot dryer and a good cleaning did the job. But today's louse, a.k.a. Pediculus humanus capitis, which nests in 12 million new heads annually, is a hardier bug, having grown resistant to the prescription drugs lindane and Elimite and the over-the-counter permethrin drug Nix, which remain imperfect mainstays in the treatment of lice. "The pyrethrins [RID, Pronto and A-200 Pyrinate...
Lindane can damage the nerves in the scalp, resulting in biting and stinging sensations "that you don't get with head lice," says Meinking. In extreme cases, the feeling of infestation precipitates paranoia and delusions. Some describe bugs crawling out of their skin; others wind up fumigating their homes. "It's a vicious cycle," Meinking says. "The more infested they feel, the more lindane they...