In the most recent study, Yoon gathered lice from 30 states with the help of public health workers.
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Other lice prescription chemicals which are effective against lice control are not highly recommended by doctors, such as asivermectin or spinosad, because they are not safe to use.
Dr. Joseph Gigante, a pediatrician at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said more study was needed to see if these lice are actually drug resistant to common over-the-counter medication. The resistant parasites have been dubbed “super lice”.
“Lice don’t have wings, and they don’t jump, so they move where people move”, Yoon said.
Dr Yoon previously studied genetic mutations, commonly known as “knock-down-resistance” (kdr) in house flies during the 70s when farmers began using pyrethroids as insecticides. That includes lice tested in South Carolina.
Scientists of Southern Illinois University studied samples of lice and discovered many are becoming immune to popular lice treatments, leaving parents struggling to battle nits in their children’s hair. Comb-out treatments, where specialists comb and pick out the lice by hand, can be another option, although they can cost hundreds of dollars.
Yoon found that many of the lice did indeed have kdr mutations, which affect an insect’s nervous system and desensitize them to pyrethroids.
And, of course, the one method that’s guaranteed to eliminate head lice is a clean shave, although not many kids are fond of this look.
As many as 12 million American school children between the ages of 3 and 11 get lice. “But if you try and save time and money and treat it on your own it will probably get worse rather than better”, Yoon said.
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Mutated lice are causing problems for many Americans. If they don’t work, she said to give your doctor a call about a possible prescription. In some cases, the treatments don’t do a thorough job because parents don’t use them as directed. The samples from Texas, California, Maine and Florida had the three genetic mutations and thus made them the most resistant states to pyrethroids.
