Head Lice

Link people to needed personal health services and assure provision of care when unavailable.

Inform, educate, and empower people about health issues.

About the Head Lice Elimination Program

Lice In the United States, infestation with head lice (Pediculus humanus capitis) is most common among preschool- and elementary school-age children and their household members and caretakers. Head lice are not known to transmit disease; however, secondary bacterial infection of the skin resulting from scratching can occur with any lice infestation.

Getting head lice is not related to cleanliness of the person or their environment. Head lice are spread by direct contact with the hair of an infested person. The most common way to get head lice is by head-to-head contact with a person who already has head lice. Such contact can be common among children during play at school, home, and elsewhere.

Most schools require children to be free from head lice and their eggs, or nits, before they can return to school. If the parent or guardian is unable to perform this procedure properly, including preventing re-infestation, the child can miss many days of school. This leads to poor academic performance, lower test scores, and truancy problems.

Outcomes:

Children who have been excluded from school for days at a time due to parental failure to adequately treat head lice will be back in the classroom very quickly. Self esteem will increase since they will no longer be the target of jokes and isolation.

Parents will, after spending time with the technician, gain an appreciation and understanding of all that is involved in the tedious, time-consuming, proper treatment of lice. Parents will then become self-sufficient in taking care of the situation were it to arise again.

School nursing staffs will devote their time to overseeing the health of the children in their assigned districts instead of spending hours combing and nit picking hair.

Attendance officers will immediately be able to refer a family to this program. The parent will have no excuse to keep their child out of school for prolonged periods. The attendance officer can then deal with other problems.

The spread of head lice will be reduced because children will receive immediate and effective treatment.

This program was funded through a grant from the Licking County Foundation during the 2009-10 school year.