Scientists sampled lice from 30 states in the United States for the study.
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He added: “If you use a chemical over and over, these little creatures will eventually develop resistance”.
With a new school year starting, health officials recommend inspecting children’s heads and physically picking the lice off of the scalp if lice are seen.
Parents and students everywhere know and fear head lice.
Normally a dose of lice-killing shampoo and some serious hair brushing tends to sort the problem out – but scientists believe that the over-use of the chemical treatments have made the bugs resistant. Those are chemical insecticides used indoors and outdoors to kill insects such as mosquitoes.
The Association advises manually removing the nits, or lice eggs, with a nit-removal comb. In many cities, professional treatment services have entered the market to help families deal with cases of head lice either at home or in special salons. The mutations affect the insect’s nervous system, desensitizing it to pyrethroids, according to the study. Only one state that was tested showed none of the three mutations, so people in Michigan are able to avoid these mutant lice for the time being.
Yoon is presenting his findings this week at the 250th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.
Lice are increasingly gaining immunity against common treatments.
“Putting the stuffed animals in a garbage bag and closing them up for 10 days, and also treating your sheets and your pillows and vacuuming your furniture”, said Burri.
Lice don’t carry disease, but they are easy to get.
The CDC estimated up to 12 million infestations will cause scratchy heads for kids and big headaches for parents each year, and now getting rid of them may be harder than ever.
The resistant lice were originally discovered in Israel in the 1990’s, then Yoon was one of the very first researchers to report on pyrethroid-resistant lice in the U.S.in 2000.
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Dr. Sky Izaddoost, a pediatrician with the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio Physician Group, says even if a portion of the lice in the area are resistant, that can have a big impact.
