Head lice are endemic worldwide. Resistance to permethrin and doubts about the safety of pesticides promoted the use of physical therapies (wet-combing, dry-on suffocation). The aim of our study was to test the pediculicidal and ovicidal effects of one application of a silicon-oil complex composed of dimethiconol and castor oil. The study was a prospective cohort of 108 infested patients (11 males, 97 females; 58 children, 50 adults), in Sri-Lanka. Pediculicidal efficacy was evaluated as the percentage of patients free of live lice one hour after the application of the treatment and at day 1 (wet combing). Ovicidal efficacy was calculated as the proportion of subjects without larval stages at days 1 and 7 among subjects followed up all over the study. In normal conditions of use, in this open cohort, a pediculicidal effect of a dimethiconol-castor-oil lotion was.shown one hour after application in 99/108 (91.7%) treated subjects and at day 1 in 86/99 (87%) subjects and an ovicidal effect at day 7 in 79/108 (73.2%) treated subjects. A second application of the same product was necessary to increase the cure rate to 79.6% (86/108) at day 8. In our study, the second application of the same product was performed seven days later, but the best time for additional applications should be defined in further studies. However, the efficacy of this safe physical treatment was similar to that of chemical pediculicides (malathion, permethrin).
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/parasite/2010174329 | DOI Listing |
Sci Rep
January 2025
Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Head lice infestation remains one of the most common child problems. This problem is not only attributed to the ability of head lice to spread rapidly but also because of the head lice resistance that develops from incomplete or improper treatment. Pyrethroids are a group of medications that have been widely used for the treatment of head lice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPathogens
December 2024
Department of Medical Microbiology, Acibadem University School of Medicine, Istanbul 34752, Türkiye.
Head lice infestation (HLI), caused by De Geer, 1767, has long been a common global problem of school children. Permethrin is an old pyrethroid derivative that has been used commonly for its treatment, and it exerts its activity over the voltage-sensitive calcium channels (VSCC) of the lice. There has been a growing list of persistent HLI cases lately in the world among patients using permethrin, and knockdown resistance (kdr)-related point mutations on VSCC have been identified and reported from those resistant lice samples.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPediatr Infect Dis J
December 2024
From the Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Paediatrics.
Bartonella quintana is a rare but important cause of culture-negative endocarditis, classically associated with body lice infestation. We report the first known pediatric case of Bartonella quintana endocarditis associated with head lice. The importance of sending targeted testing for this organism in at-risk patients, ideally on tissue specimens, is emphasized.
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