Head lice are insects that have been parasitizing human beings for thousands of years. Chemical pediculicides have been used extensively for the treatment of infestations since the early 20 century. Resistance to these pediculicides, such as permethrin, is constantly increasing and there is a need for the development of new effective compounds killing adult lice and eggs. Natural products have ...

BACKGROUND Head lice infestation caused by Pediculus humanus var capitis (Pediculus capitis) is a worldwide public health concern that affects mostly school aged children. This descriptive, analytical study was carried out in 2008 to determine the prevalence of pediculosis capitis and some risk factors among primary-school pupils in Bahar, Hamadan Province, Iran. METHODS We selected 900 pupil...

Permethrin resistance in head lice is mainly conferred by the knockdown resistance (kdr) trait, a voltagesensitive sodium channel (VSSC) insensitivity factor. Three VSSC mutations have been identified and confirmed to reduce the sensitivity of VSSC to permethrin. A step-wise resistance monitoring system has been established based on molecular resistance detection techniques. Quantitative sequen...

The effectiveness of 1-octanol, 1-nonanol, 1-decanol, 1-undecanol, and 1-dodecanol was evaluated by immersion method against susceptible and permethrin-resistant head lice, Pediculus humanus capitis De Geer, from Buenos Aires, Argentina. All the tested alcohols showed knockdown effect at 10 min and mortality 18 h after treatment. The highest activity was found for the 1-dodecanol (KC50 2.55%, L...

Background: Pediculosis capitis is a common parasitic infection of children. In this study we assessed the prevalence of head pediculosis among the middle schoolchildren in the urban and rural areas of Fars province, southern Iran.Methods: All middle schoolchildren ages 11-14, in all the urban and rural areas of the province were screened for head lice infestation by examining their hair and sc...

conclusions the overall infestation rate in the present study is probably one of the lowest infestation rates in iran and in the region. it appears necessary to examine pupils by trained persons for early detection of infestation. results according to the obtained results, pediculosis spp. prevalence was 2% among male and female students of khorramshahr primary schools; it was 2.6% in females a...

Pediculosis seems to have afflicted humans since the most ancient times and lice have been found in several ancient human remains. Examination of the head hair and pubic hair of the artificial mummy of Ferdinand II of Aragon (1467-1496), King of Naples, revealed a double infestation with two different species of lice, Pediculus capitis, the head louse, and Pthirus pubis, the pubic louse. The ha...

Prevalence of head lice infestation was studied among school children at Dera Ismail Khan from November 2002 to January 2003. A standard questionnaire was designed for recording a variety of information at the time of survey. Visual inspection of student’s head, and combing of their hair for 2-4 minutes were made to check the presence of lice, nymphs and eggs. The overall infestation rate was 2...