If you receive a note from the kindergarten teacher telling you some of the children have head lice, don’t shudder and think you have chosen a kindergarten in the wrong neighborhood.
I suppose we have grown up with the idea that anyone who has become a home for little bugs must be unclean.
Unfortunately, this is not so. The parasitic mites are no respecters of rank, socio-economic status or standards of personal hygiene.
Scabies and lice have been rare for about 25 years but are now enjoying a resurgence. In fact, we have an epidemic of these parasites.
It’s not clear why. It may be related more to the life cycle of these minute insects than to changing social mores or levels of cleanliness in the community.
There are three forms of lice — the head louse, the body louse and the pubic louse.
Body lice are uncommon and usually seen only on derelicts, but the other two are now very common in our community.
The body louse is important in that it can carry serious diseases such as typhus fever, trench fever and relapsing fever which are not seen in Australia.
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