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Pediculosis Capitis
Cooties
Foogle Business
Modified: 09/19/20 08:43 " LEARN MORE, BE MORE " ©
The Louse - Lice
Louse A wingless insect that is a parasite of warm-blooded animals. The sucking lice suck the blood of mammals. They have hairy flattened bodies, 0.5–6 mm long, and claws for attaching themselves to the host. One of the most important species is the human louse (Pediculus Humanus), of which there are two varieties—the head louse (P. Humanus capitis) and the body louse (P. humanus humanus). Both are transmitted by contact with an infested person and lay their eggs - nits - on hair or clothing. Body lice are carriers of typhus and related diseases. Biting lice feed on the skin, feathers, etc., of birds—their principal hosts.
The Talon of the Body Louse that it grips onto you with.
Life Cycle
An adult louse gets onto the skin and heads for the warmer and sweatier parts of the body, where there is usually pubic hair. At the first opportunity the female will lays her eggs. She can lay 2 - 3 eggs a day depending on how big her blood-meal supply has been.
They attach their eggs, called nits, to the host's pubic hair. Eggs hatch 6-10 days later releasing the larvae, called nymphs
Within 15 days the larvae mutate into adults and start to multiply again. The nymphs feed on skin flakes and adult lice feed on human blood. A louse lives for about 6 weeks but can die within 24 hours without a blood meal.
How you will feel.
The first you may know that you have crabs is that you will itch more than usual, especially in the pubic areas. The adult louse will inject an enzyme into you which is part anti-coagulant, so that the blood will flow better, and will not coagulate inside its digestive system. you will feel run-down. This lethargy or irritability, generally does not begin until after about five days.
This may make you feel poorly, or even have a mild fever, as different people react differently to this chemical. But there is also a great psychological influence; the suspicion and or fear of having caught crabs, the shame connected to this etc, may make you feel not at your best. At the bite site, the skin maybe inflamed with small red or bluish marks.
How Do You Get Them?
These parasites are transmitted by:
an infected parent to children through close contact
intimate contact
sexual contact, especially intercourse; they can move quickly and will inadvertently cross-contaminate. A condom will not stop infestation.
Contact with contaminated items, such as:
bedding
clothing
toilet seats
towels
upholstered furniture
Engaging in oral sex can be infect the hair of the:
chest
eyebrows
eyelashes
face
scalp
Risk Factors
Avoid any close contact with others if you have scabies or pubic lice.
Some people do not itch so they do not even know they are infected.
PUBIC LOUSE
Diagnosis is usually made with the naked eye, or a magnifying glass, or under a microscope, from observation of the shape of the louse and/or its eggs. You would look for tiny gray, almost translucent spider-like insects. However, they do darken in color when swollen with blood. They have six-legs and use the four of them to hold onto the pubic hair.
If you think you have been exposed to pubic lice or scabies see your doctor or health practitioner immediately to determine whether or not treatment is required.
Treatment is with anti-parasite medication, the most effective treatments being shampoos and creams. Follow your doctors directions and the directions that will come with the appropriate chemicals as they can be quite toxic. Even so the Pubic Louse is hard to kill as it grows evermore resistant to these remedies. Repeat treatment maybe necessary, so be careful.
If you are pregnant do not use any insecticide treatment as this may damage the embryo / fetus.
Get strict medical advise before treating children.
Treatment of your living Environment.
Sanitization of all bedding and clothing with hot-water machine washing or dry cleaning is essential to avoid re-infection.
Everyone in the family, exposed to pubic lice or not, should be treated at the same time.
The home should be thoroughly vacuumed.
Quilts or blankets and other bedding, can be stored away, sealed in a plastic bag, from other clothing for a month or so, as without blood, the lice and any nits that hatch, will die without a feed.
Home Remedies
Rub areas with some essential oil like, Citronella Oil, Tea-Tree Oil, Neem Oil, Pennyroyal, Eucalyptus Oil, Lavender Oil, or Cedar Wood Oil, as they do not like these strong odors.
The Louse - If you consider how thick this hair is, how big is this Louse? Think how many could be crawling on your head.
Body Lice (Pediculus humanus) are closely related to head lice, but are less frequently encountered in the US. As the name implies, body lice generally feed on the body, but may rarely be discovered on the scalp and facial hair. They usually remain on clothing near the skin, and generally deposit their eggs on or near the seams of garments. Body lice are acquired mainly through direct contact with an infested person or their clothing and bedding, and are most commonly found on individuals who infrequently change or wash their clothes. A change to clean clothes, and laundering of infested garments (especially drying with high heat or ironing), are generally effective to eliminate this burden.
Body lice (but not head lice or pubic lice) serve as vectors of certain human pathogens. Epidemics of louse-borne typhus, louse-borne relapsing fever and trench fever decimated the populace through the ages, and millions more perished from these infections during the 1900's during major conflicts and famines. Fear of these diseases fueled atrocious and perverse campaigns to quarantine and assault unpopular ethnic groups suspected of promoting risk. Current efforts to seek out and quarantine individuals infested with head lice may be driven, in part, by those who misinterpret or intentionally misapply certain principals of public health.
What are head lice
Head Lice, or Nits, Cooties or even, Pediculus Capitis, are tiny parasitic insects deftly adapted to live and survive on human heads and is one of our most formidable pests. They reside mainly on the scalp and neck hairs of their human host. Their six notable legs have evolved to firmly grasp thin hair shafts, and this provides a striking example of biological propensity, that is, evolving to suit one's environment.
Particular to only humans, desiccated head lice have been found in prehistoric mummies. Pediculosis Capitis, commonly known as Head Lice or just Cooties, occur worldwide, and historically date back to the time of the ancient Greeks. Aristotle, even mentioned them in his writings, but they probably have lineage going back over 500 million years.
Head lice are an equal-opportunity parasite; they do not worry about socio-economic class, they will make their home on any head. The fact that they prefer clean heads is disputable, but their existence does not indicate a lack of hygiene or sanitation practiced by the family of their host.
Head lice are mainly caught by close head-to-head contact with a person who is already carrying the insect. But may quite often, especially in families, be transferred by sharing combs, brushes, hats and other things associated with hair. The Head Louse, can also remain on bedding, especially the pillow, or upholstered furniture for around 24 - 36 hours, where it might be picked up. Neither able to fly or jump, the head louse is unlikely to wander far from their preferred habitat. Lice and their eggs are unable to burrow into the scalp.
In the West, children are more regularly infested than adults, but this is because children play together in closer quarters, touching head etc. Caucasians more frequently come under the effect of this parasite, than any other ethnic group.
All or most six-legged insects have a Four-Stage Life-Cycle. Eggs ; Larvae; Pupae and the Imago - the adult.
The Head Louse and the Pubic Louse, whilst obviously related they are NOT the same creature.
Lice - The Louse - Head Lice
Lice are sometimes referred to as cooties, the eggs as nits, and infested people as being lousy. Sometimes, being infested quite badly, can make us feel lethargic, hence the expression, . . . I am feeling lousy.
The infestation by head or other body lice is termed as pediculiasis and chemical treatments or insecticides, directed against lice are formally called pediculicides. Those that kill the adult imago, and nymphet-lice are sometimes called less formally, lousicides. Those that kill the developing embryo within the egg are ovicides, and this is the most common attack, breaking the life-cycle.
Head lice derive nutrient by blood-feeding once or more each day, and cannot survive for more than 24 - 36 hours, without feeding on a person's blood, and must live at around room temperature.
A female head-louse may deposit more than 100 eggs in a lifetime, at a rate of about six eggs each day. A young female must feed first, and of course mate. Only those eggs deposited by inseminated female lice will hatch. A nymphal louse, or larva, hatches from its egg after about 8 days of development, and begins to feed, grow and develop, until it attains the adult stage after about 9-12 days subsequent to hatching.
In the West due to better grooming, an infested person may have fewer than 15 effective lice on the scalp at any time, but there may be hundreds of viable, dead and or hatched eggs or nits. Egg casings are well adhered to the shaft of the hair, and generally can only be removed with a rake through with a Nit-Comb. Otherwise, they just grow out with the hair. With enough magnification, the developing nymph can be seen moving within the egg; hatched eggs though are nearly transparent.
Treatment should be only be considered when living and active lice or viable eggs, can be seen and confirmed, as the chemicals used for treatment are quite perilous to human health. A child who has been affected and treated on several occasions, may build up dangerous levels of the insecticide in their bodies, causing liver problems and other complaints.
Itching of the scalp or the perception that something is crawling on the head, does not always necessitate treatment for head lice. Without close scrutiny and suitable experience, it is sometimes difficult to correctly distinguish from other material caught in the hair, such as dandruff, scabs, dirt, or even other insects, like the flea.
Maybe 50% of the World's population have Lice living in their eyes.
Itching is caused by the actual bite, as the scalp is quite sensitive but also to the reaction to the chemical compound, that these blood-sucking insects inject into the wound via their saliva. The chemical acts as a mild anaesthetic, but more importantly as an anti-coagulant. Chemicals like, chlorophacinone, stop the body's defences from carrying out their job.
In normal circumstances when the skin is sufficiently broken, the body's blood-pressure forces blood to the surface. If the flow is not too profuse, after about two and a half minutes the blood flow will gradually stop. Blood platelets, which tend to be sticky, hang onto the sides of the wound as a clot, and build up, hopefully stemming the bleeding. Eventually these dry and form the reddish scab, that all children know well. Anti-coagulants stop the blood from clotting, and therefore sealing the wound, thus giving a good flow of nutrient to the parasite, and facilitating digestion.
Body Lice
Body Lice. (Pediculus humanus) are closely related to head lice, but are less frequently encountered in the US. As the name implies, body lice generally feed on the body, but may rarely be discovered on the scalp and facial hair. They usually remain on clothing near the skin, and generally deposit their eggs on or near the seams of garments. Body lice are acquired mainly through direct contact with an infested person or their clothing and bedding, and are most commonly found on individuals who infrequently change or wash their clothes. A change to clean clothes, and laundering of infested garments (especially drying with high heat or ironing), are generally effective to eliminate this burden.
Body lice (but not head lice or pubic lice) serve as vectors of certain human pathogens. Epidemics of louse-borne typhus, louse-borne relapsing fever and trench fever decimated the populace through the ages, and millions more perished from these infections during the 1900's during major conflicts and famines. Fear of these diseases fueled atrocious and perverse campaigns to quarantine and assault unpopular ethnic groups suspected of promoting risk. Current efforts to seek out and quarantine individuals infested with head lice may be driven, in part, by those who misinterpret or intentionally misapply certain principals of public health
© Copyright 2000 - 2020 Foogle.info not a Website - A Day Out
Pediculosis Capitis
Cooties
Foogle Business
Modified: 09/19/20 08:43 " LEARN MORE, BE MORE " ©
Roy G Symonds BA [Law]
