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...

Scabies and head lice infestation are two common parasitic infestations seen in children. Scabies in children can present with diffuse skin lesions and characteristic intraepidermal tunnels known as burrows. The causative mites of scabies live and move inside these tunnels. Intense pruritus is common with scabies. Head louse infestation presents with scalp pruritus, the presence of live lice, a...