The immediate reaction from someone who has no experience with lice is panic. They will want to know whether their child is infected, whether they came in contact with the children who did have lice, and whether there are any dreaded bugs coming home. Should the children’s hats and clothes be burned? Should we visit the doctor and get some atomic antiseptic? Are the household’s cleanliness standards up to par?
The best advice is to calm down. Lice isn’t leprosy, and it’s fairly common among school kids. The head louse is a wingless, tiny parasite that lives in human hair and feeds on small amounts of blood sucked from the scalp. Lice is the plural of louse, and they are contagious, hard to get rid of and above all, annoying. But don’t panic.
Ultimately, anyone who has lice will be back to normal in short order with the proper treatment. It’s not time to fumigate the house, shave anyone’s head or apply all sorts of chemical treatments to the family.
The Good News: Lice Aren't Dangerous
The good news is that a lice infestation isn’t dangerous. The creatures don’t spread disease, although they can cause scratching, which increases the potential for infections if the skin is penetrated. Lice on a child’s head are visible with the naked eye. They can be yellow, tan or brown dots before hatching and usually are located near the root line of hair shafts, particularly in long-haired individuals. Lice love warmth, and they will cling to the hair shafts tightly, which makes them impossible to remove by mere brushing or other techniques.