ALMOST ALL LICE ARE NOW RESISTANT TO THE OVER-THE COUNTER TREATMENTS
Almost All Lice Are Now Resistant to Over-the-Counter Treatment
The majority of head lice in the United States are now resistant to most over-the-counter treatments.
According to the most recent study, researchers found that head lice (Pediculus humanus capitis) in 42 of the 48 states studied, including California, carry an average of three genetic mutations that make these bugs impervious to popular over-the-counter anti-lice remedies such as RID or NIX. In the remaining six states, the lice had zero, one or two of the three mutations, on average, the researchers reported in the study, published in the Journal of Medical Entomology.
Moreover, a detailed analysis showed that 98.3 percent of the genes involved in these mutations were, in fact, mutated in a way that helped the lice survive the most popular treatments, the researchers found. [The 10 Most Diabolical and Disgusting Parasites]
“What it’s telling us is that, right now, these over-the-counter products aren’t nearly as effective as they used to be,” said study principal investigator John Clark, a professor of environmental toxicology and chemistry at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Clark, who studies the effects of insecticides on the brain, started researching lice after hearing that people were having trouble getting rid of the insects. He and his colleagues reached out to school nurses across the country, and asked them to collect samples of head lice that could be used for the study.
In all, the researchers got samples from 138 sites within 48 states (Alaska and West Virginia were not included). In most states, the samples came from urban, suburban and rural schools, which helped the researchers understand how much lice resistance had spread, Clark said.
Louse mutations
Lice are insects, and in the past, over-the-counter insecticides killed lice by causing louse muscle paralysis and death. But now, lice with one or more of those specific mutations in their DNA can survive these insecticides, and pass the mutations onto their offspring, Clark said.
The most popular lice treatments, which use insecticides called permethrins and pyrethroids, are now relatively useless, Clark said. But this newfound resistance isn’t surprising, Clark said.
“There is nothing unique about lice becoming resistant to the pyrethroids,” Clark told Live Science. “We have over 300 different insects that have become resistant to the pyrethroids, and many of those insects became resistant by acquiring these mutations exactly as the head louse has done.”
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