Haven’t Gone Anywhere? Yes, You Can Still Get Lice!

Even if you have not gone out less often or even not at all, you can still get head lice. All head lice need is a strand of hair and warm scalp to live on. 

So you just have to ask yourself have you or your child been around ANYONE in the past few weeks or months where head-to-head contact has occurred? Chances are for most people the answer is yes.

Because head lice is primarily spread through head-to-head contact, most people get lice from people they are very close to. Examples include your child’s best friend that slept over, family members you got together with for a meal, a friend you have not seen in a while that you hugged, a roommate you live with.  

Another common way we see people get lice is in the work environment where people have to work closely with others. For example, the most common professions we treat are school teachers and nurses.

Because children are sociable to begin with and are more likely to pay less attention to risks, children do tend to be the primary carriers of head lice. They then unknowingly transmit it to their unknowing parents. For example, moms get head lice from their children about 80% of the time when their child has lice.  

Another huge challenge of head lice is that they are so small so most people do not realize they have lice for two to three weeks. Lice eggs are the size of a grain of sand and do not move.  An adult lice is the size of a sesame seed.  Not only are they small and heard to see but only 40% or so of people that have lice actually itch which means 6 out of 10 people do not experience any itching when they have lice.

So as you can see, even during these COVID-19 times where social distancing is practiced, the reality of head lice infestations is all it takes is head-to-head contact for someone to get lice-regardless if you have gone out or not.