Background: Data on ovicidal activity of pediculicides are essential to determine the efficacy of commercial products, and to define application schemes. We present an adaptation of historical methods for rearing head lice, and describe their development ex vivo. Methods: Adult head lice were collected and fed on volunteers to obtain fertile eggs of known age. Two methods of feeding were applie...

Since the pioneering work of Charles Nicolle in 1909 [see Gross (1996) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 93:10539–10540] most medical officers and scientists have assumed that body lice are the sole vectors of Rickettsia prowazekii, the aetiological agent of louseborne epidemic typhus (LBET). Here we review the evidence for the axiom that head lice are not involved in epidemics of LBET. Laboratory experim...

background: pediculosis capitis is a continuous common health problem worldwide. pediculus capitis distributes quickly in overcrowded regions. the goal of the present research was to determine some epidemiological features of head lice infestation in khorram-shahr county, southwestern iran.   methods: this descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on the patients with head lice infestatio...

908 Emerging Infectious Diseases • www.cdc.gov/eid • Vol. 20, No. 5, May 2014 this research team (DR) collected the eggs from the hair shaft, they were found ≈3 3.5 cm from the hair follicle. Because hair grows ≈1.25 cm per month, the louse infestation occurred ≈3 months before egg collection (6). Homeless persons that we have monitored for many years are often heavily infested by body lice but...

Pm 1156 | Revised | May 1998 There are three species of lice that can at times infest humans— the head louse, the body louse, and the crab or pubic louse. These pests belong to the group called sucking lice and, as their name implies, feed by sucking blood from a host. The feeding activity of these lice produces a considerable amount of personal discomfort and skin irritation that may cause itc...

BACKGROUND Body louse or head louse? Once removed from their environment, body and head lice are indistinguishable. Neither the morphological criteria used since the mid-18th century nor the various genetic studies conducted since the advent of molecular biology tools have allowed body lice and head lice to be differentiated. In this work, using a portion of the Phum_PHUM540560 gene from the bo...