Parental and Child Attitudes Towards Pediculosis are a Major Cause Of Reinfection

Abstract

Pediculosis can elicit considerable emotional distress in the infected and their carers, but the role of attitude in head lice reinfection has not been explored. Failure of head lice control is often attributed to insecticide resistance because human aspects of reinfestation are unknown. This study collected data from 128 teenagers with a history of pediculosis to retrospectively explore attitudes towards head lice. One third of female and two thirds of male teenagers were unconcerned about having head lice. One fifth of parents did nothing about their child’s head lice infections, while a few male students did not inform their parents when they had pediculosis. This is the first study on the prevalence of human lice carriers who are a primary cause of head lice reinfection. Medical and public health professions need to understand the social reasons for the failure of insecticide-based head lice control.