How lice are transmitted from person to person and is it possible to avoid this scourge

Good day. Recently I read in a newspaper that in a kindergarten a child with head lice went to a general group for a week and no one knew about it.

As a result, half the group got infected from him. There a big scandal arose, but I don’t remember the end of the story.

In this whole story, something else deserves much more attention: the children did not know that lice could be transmitted. Yes, and adults are not particularly up to date. Want to know how lice are transmitted from person to person? How to avoid this? In the article below I will try to analyze this topic in detail.

Lice

Pediculosis or lice. What it is? Translated into Russian, this disease is called “lice” or infection with lice. Contrary to popular belief that lice are the destiny of wartime and people without a fixed place of residence, absolutely everyone can get a small and harmful pet on their head.

The main troubles for humans are the three main types of lice: Head louse, Clothes louse and pubic louse.

Kinds

The head louse settles in the scalp, preferring the occipital and temporal areas. This translucent insect belongs to the small obligate (constantly occurring) parasites and the order of the lopsided.

Their oral apparatus is adapted to biting through the skin and sucking out blood. When bitten, the parasite secretes an irritating substance into the wound that causes severe itching.

A person bitten by lice has an unbearable desire to comb the place of a bite, with his own hands introducing a secondary infection into the wound. A local inflammatory reaction appears, redness, crusts and tightening of the skin at the site of scratching. This infection can spread to neighboring lymph nodes.

The louse, in addition to itching, causes other troubles, being a carrier of such dangerous diseases as typhus, Volyn fever and relapsing fever. Unlike the head, she lives in the folds of clothes, and lays eggs in the same place. Therefore, bites are located at the places where the clothes contact the body: on the belt, in the elbow and knee bends, in the collar area.

Unfortunately, the incidence of pediculosis is growing every year. One of the reasons for this, in addition to climate mitigation, is the lack of awareness of people about the disease. Incorrect treatment of pediculosis leads not only to re-infection of the patient and his close people, but also helps parasites to adapt to new drugs.

How lice are transmitted

A louse cannot fly and jump, but it crawls well, runs and even swims! She finds a new owner, focusing on the smell. It is easy to get an uninvited guest on your head, using any item that touches first a sore head, and then a healthy one: a comb, a hat, and headphones.

The risk group for infection with pediculosis is children, and more often at the age of 5 to 12 years. This can be explained by the fact that at this age, children usually actively communicate in close contact with peers in children's groups. Children become more independent, their parents' control over personal hygiene is reduced.

Adults easily become infected with lice from children in the family, it is also possible infection in bathhouses, swimming pools and hairdressers, as well as when serving child care facilities or being in crowded groups (military, places of deprivation of liberty).

Symptoms and Diagnosis

The diagnosis of pediculosis does not cause technical complications: it is enough to detect live specimens of lice or nits when examined with the naked eye or under magnification.

The greater difficulty is the psychological side of the issue. The patient, having heard that he has lice, often perceives such news with hostility.

Previously, it was almost impossible for a doctor to prove the need for treatment, since the small size of the parasite and its active movement, as well as often the physician’s imperfect vision, are easily doubtful.

Recently, this situation has been fundamentally changed by video dermatoscopy (examination of the skin under magnification, with recording on video). Now in doubtful cases, you can confirm the diagnosis.

Lice treatment

How to get rid of lice? The set of drugs for the treatment of pediculosis today is radically different from what it was before. Now the treatment of head lice does not require shaving the head (except in cases of allergies to ALL existing drugs, which is extremely rare).

Also, do not use extremely non-aromatic folk methods, such as Kerosene with oil, dust, hellebore. In addition, they do not guarantee a positive result at all, but spoiled hair, a terrible smell, or even poisoning are much more likely.

Do not neglect re-treatment - during the first treatment, the medicine can "spare" several nits, which will become a source of re-infection.

Be sure to examine and treat pediculosis at the same time for all members of the team (groups in kindergarten, family, ward), as an untreated person will again become a source of infection. To do this, drug manufacturers create packaging, the means of which will be enough more than once.

Follow all instructions exactly - the parasites adapt very quickly, and you have to use more and more complex means. Today, preference should be given to combination drugs.

After treatment for two weeks, monitoring of the skin of the patient is necessary to ensure complete elimination of lice. This time interval is due to the timing of the development of nits.

In order to remove nits that are tightly attached to the hair, it is necessary to comb them with a special very frequent comb. Occasionally, manufacturers of anti-pediculosis drugs put them in a drug package. But they can be purchased separately. I even met special ridges, on which laser cuts were applied, for a more effective result.

Complications

The most common head lice of the scalp is not particularly dangerous for humans, except for unpleasant itching and a secondary infection of the scalp. Body lice - a carrier of typhoid infection - today is not so common.

Typhoid fever manifests itself as a general increase in temperature, the appearance of a rash and other symptoms. In this case, consultation with the infectious disease doctor and isolated treatment in the infectious ward is necessary.

Infection prevention

For the prevention of head lice, you just need to regularly carry out hygiene measures (washing and combing the head, regular inspection of the scalp) and have for this individual equipment (combs, curlers, clothes).

Pediculosis is an unpleasant disease, everyone is subject to it. Do not be shy, go through the treatment and forget about this problem.

How are lice transmitted from person to person?

Lice are quite inactive parasites. They very rarely leave the hairline of a person, but can “fall out”, for example, when walking. Most often, they are then found on clothing in the neck.

Are lice transmitted from person to person? Yes, there is only one way of pediculosis transmission - an insect gets on a healthy person’s body from a patient.

How are lice transmitted from person to person? Pediculosis is transmitted through household contact or, if one clothing is used, combs for two. More rarely, lice is transmitted through bedding and pillows.

Regarding the cleanliness of the hair, the doctors found that the likelihood of infection is significantly higher in those who carefully monitor their hygiene, wash their hair several times a week. However, along with this, the smell of sweat attracts parasites.

For this reason, there is an opinion that lice may appear on a nervous basis. During stress, a person significantly increases the amount of synthesized sweat, which attracts insects. But pediculosis is not directly related to psychological health.

Is it possible to get lice in a pool or a river? Yes, you need to consider that lice is fairly easily transmitted through water. That is, a visit to the public pool or swimming in the rivers can really cause the transmission of head lice.

Lice are not afraid of water and can stay in it for up to 2 days, maintaining their activity. That's just the insects in it can not control their movement.

Now that you are more or less aware of how lice can be infected, let's move on to another interesting topic - the erroneous opinions that people have about ways to transmit head lice.

Known misconceptions

It is necessary to refute popular misconceptions regarding methods of infection with lice:

There are a whole host of other myths about how people become infected with lice, but it is worth remembering that transmission is possible only with close contact or with the sharing of some personal items (combs, curlers, outerwear).

And just a few parasites will be quite enough so that after 2-3 days a whole column will form on their head.

Thanks to the information presented above, you know what pediculosis is, how this disease is transmitted from a sick person to a healthy one, and now let's talk about the infection process itself.

Infection process

How does lice infect? In medicine, there is no such thing as pediculosis infection. There is no immunity in humans to this disease.

The exception is those who are completely cut off. Lice cannot exist in such conditions, since they need to attach their cocoons to their hair for reproduction.

How quickly do lice breed after infection? Getting only one female on the hairline will be enough for the subsequent spread of insects. Within 3-4 days, she will certainly lay eggs, and after a few days a whole column of larvae will appear from them.

Additional Information

Can a person not get infected? It all depends on the case. It is not a fact that the parasite, once on the body, will remain on the new "master", but the probability of this is very high.

How to protect yourself from infection? The only effective method is timely prevention and compliance with personal hygiene rules. It will not be superfluous to inspect at least once a week your hair for the presence of nits.

What diseases do lice transmit? Do not be afraid of lice. These parasites are not carriers of any diseases, they are easily excreted.

They are not dangerous to health and bring only temporary discomfort. If infection is suspected, you should seek the help of a physician or local doctor. And you can use the old "grandfather" method - vinegar. By the way, doctors also use it.

How lice are transmitted from person to person and how to avoid this trouble

Lice are one of the most common parasites that infect humans. Such a parasitic infection is called head lice, it affects both children and adults, regardless of region of residence and social status. Human lice have been known for a long time and the ways of infection by them are well studied.

However, this process is overgrown with many myths, most of which are unfounded. To understand how lice are transmitted from person to person, and how to avoid this, you need to know the characteristics of parasites and their life cycle.

Varieties

Lice are blood-sucking parasites that live and breed in humans. In humans, the following types of lice parasitize:

1. Head - live in the scalp of a person, for bald and shaved people they are not dangerous.Such insects breed quite quickly and cause severe itching, as they bite and feed on the blood of their host several times a day. Adults reach 4-5 mm in length, and larvae - 2mm;
2. Dressed or linen lice - a type of louse that is separated from the head lice, therefore they look like their counterparts in both size and body structure. They settle in the folds of a person’s clothes and affect mainly parts of the body with scanty hair: stomach, back, chest and shoulders;
3. Pubic lice - live in the genital area of ​​a person. Pubic lice is considered an infection that is sexually transmitted. Such parasites differ from their relatives in size - an adult does not exceed 2 mm.

These species of insects differ in appearance, areas of parasitization on the human body and how they are transmitted from one host to another.

They enter the bloodstream through damage to the skin. In addition, this disease provokes allergic reactions and inflammation of the lymph nodes.

Signs of infection

Since head lice and other lice need frequent nutrition, they actively bite their carrier and drink its blood. In connection with this, the first sign of infection with pediculosis of any kind is constant intense itching. In addition, upon closer examination, these insects can be seen on things, hair or in the genital area.

When combing, an infection is transmitted to the blood of a person, due to which ulcers and boils develop in the affected areas. With a prolonged course of the disease, the skin is constantly injured and can be pigmented.

In addition, the danger lies in the fact that various diseases are transmitted along with them: typhus and typhoid fever, Volyn fever, tularemia. Parasites that have settled in the intimate zone can transmit sexually transmitted diseases from previous owners: syphilis, gonorrhea, and others.

At the moment, it is possible to quickly get rid of blood-sucking insects with the help of modern external products that are sold without a prescription. Nevertheless, at the first signs of the appearance of lice, you need to see a doctor to avoid complications and related diseases.

Methods of transmission

There are various theories that lice can be infected from domestic or stray animals, and that insects jump or fly from one infected to another.

In fact, these judgments are groundless, because human lice are dangerous only for people, they don’t have wings and they don’t know how to jump. In many ways, this saves from major epidemics of pediculosis and diseases that are transmitted by lice.

Toddlers closely interact with each other, change hats, clothes with hoods, use only combs and other things, so insects are easily transmitted from one carrier to another.

In addition, head and linen lice can be infected in public places, implying a large concentration of people. It can be public transport or a queue in the supermarket.If one family member has been infected, then the parasites will quickly spread to other households, as well as to colleagues and friends (through a common wardrobe and through personal contact).

Distribution features are pubic lice, which live in the inguinal region, in the perineum and folds near the intimate area. They are transmitted mostly through sexual contact.

However, this is not the only way to become infected. Using shared towels or bed linen will also lead to the transfer of blood-sucking insects from one owner to another.

This is especially true for people who often travel on long distance trains and live in hotels and hostels. In rare cases, such unexpected guests get hooked up when using the pool, if it does not carry out proper disinfection of water.

Lice treatment

You can get rid of head and body lice with the help of the same drugs. It should be remembered that treatment should be passed to all people living in a common space. This is necessary, even if there are no clear signs of infection at the time of use of the drugs.

The following remedies are used against blood-sucking parasites:

In the case of head lice in the scalp, with these means it is necessary to treat the head and hats of all households. Dead active individuals and larvae need to be combed daily with a frequent comb, while special attention should be paid to nits, which are fixed on the hair with an adhesive substance, so it is more difficult to get rid of them.

Treatment of pubic lice is preferably carried out under the supervision of a dermatologist-venereologist, since drugs that are used for this are toxic and harm not only lice, but also their carrier.

However, they are sold without a prescription, so you can choose one of the following means yourself:

• Spray Pax;
• Veda-2;
• Gray mercury ointment;
• Nittifor.

Such sprays, ointments and shampoos treat the inguinal region, perineum and the anus. In addition, when infected with pubic lice, you need to wash bedding, towels with antiparasitic detergents, and thoroughly vacuum the carpet.

Preventive actions

Preventive measures for such infections are to limit contact with infected people. If possible, it is necessary to avoid crowded places, if there is information about the epidemic in educational institutions, it is better to temporarily refuse to visit them.

In addition, you should not use common towels and similar household items. It is also worth remembering that this type of insect lives only in the scalp, which is why pubic shaving is also an effective preventive measure.

If it was not possible to avoid infection with lice, there is no need to despair: the sooner treatment begins, the less chance of complications, so you immediately need to go to a clinic or pharmacy.

Do lice jump from head to head?

Lice - insects are lazy, do not like to move around, prefer to settle in one place (where there is food) and sit there all day. How, then, with such a sedentary lifestyle, are they transmitted to humans?

Maybe they are jumping? Or do they not know how to jump and are transferred to a person in another way? Consider all cases of how lice are transmitted - this information will help protect yourself and your loved ones from such a disease as head lice.

Steep leaps - are there?

First we want to know if lice are jumping. No, the insects that are the source of human head lice (this includes the head, pubic, and linen species) cannot jump - this does not allow the construction of paws.

The limbs are adapted for tightly grasping the hairs (so that after getting on the body, catch and not accidentally fall off the owner), and the body is too large and heavy.

The only way head lice, pubic and linen are transmitted is by insects crawling onto a person. True, insects crawl fast enough - catching a bug is not easy, as the parasite cleverly dodges and quickly runs away.

Where do they crawl from?

Parasites are transmitted in two ways:

1. after close contact with an infected person,
2. after using common things.

Head, pubic and linen individuals are especially quickly transmitted in places with high crowding. Adds the risk of unsanitary infection. According to statistics, pediculosis appears most often after visiting communal apartments, barracks, refugee camps.

You can get the disease from a person with whom they share a common bed. The risk of infection from a husband or wife is 99%. During sexual intercourse, the probability of infection with pubic species is 94%.

Obtaining pediculosis can occur after visiting a school, kindergarten, camp or other place where children communicate closely (therefore, children are constantly monitored in schools and kindergartens).

Head lice go to people after sharing towels, combs, hairpins. An infected person with lice will have parasites in hats and scarves - these things should not be worn by a healthy man and woman.

Head types are rarely transmitted through underwear. And clothes (underwear) just start in clothes (which do not wash and do not iron).

Sometimes people become infected through furniture used by a person with a parasitic disease. As a rule, lice hold on to hair tightly, and only one or two individuals with mass infection can fall and crawl.

Can parasites swim?

There is an assumption: in the summer it is easy to catch head lice in a river or a pool - supposedly lice and fleas breed in the water and can swim well. True or not? Parasites, in fact, do not die when released into water.

Scientists have found that an adult individual and eggs during the incubation period are able to remain alive for two to three days after getting into the water. And after that they do not drown, but die because of hunger.

This is especially true of reservoirs in which a large number of people bathe. For example, the Indian Ganges River is the main source of parasitic diseases of the local population, including pediculosis.

Where can I pick up eggs?

How head and other varieties of this insect are transmitted, we have told. But sometimes they ask - are lice eggs transmitted? We must try very hard to get eggs or larvae in the initial, incubation period of the development of the parasite.

Features:

The eggs are tightly attached to the hair, they can only be scraped off, which is why the only way to quickly get lice in the early incubation period is through a hair comb. That's why this attribute is considered a personal hygiene product - even in the same family everyone should have their own comb.

You can become infected if you start wearing clothes that are already inhabited by parasites. There are no other ways in which clothes are transmitted.

Are pets a source of infection?

Having discovered that fleas are jumping in a dog or cat, many begin to think that insects will quickly jump to their bodies too. Calm down, fleas are not transmitted to us! These are different animals (they are parasites that feed on blood, go through a similar period of development, reproduce equally quickly, but the similarities end there).

These parasites have a different appearance, which is clearly visible in the photo (fleas are small and dark with a rounded body and long legs, and head, pubic and linen species of lice are transparent with short limbs). Even fleas can jump, and lice can’t jump. But the most important difference is that insects do not overlap in food sources.

To summarize: head, pubic and linen lice are transmitted only through close contact with infected people or through shared household and personal hygiene items. They do not know how to jump and just crawl.

Cat and dog fleas can jump. But such bastards are not transmitted to people, or rather, they can jump on a person, but they will not live on the body (they will immediately jump to the floor or to the animal).

It is worth remembering: places of mass congestion with high unsanitary conditions are of particular danger. Lice are transmitted there especially quickly (in such places, insects can crawl anywhere). Once on the human body, the bugs begin to multiply rapidly - it is important to detect signs of lice as soon as possible, and begin treatment.

How fast lice are transmitted

There are several varieties of bloodsucking that can parasitize on the human body. This is the head, body and pubic louse. Insects are very similar to each other in their life, development, way of feeding. However, there are anatomical differences and transmission methods differ.

Head parasites. The name of these bloodsuckers speaks for itself. They prefer to parasitize in a person’s head. Occasionally they are found in a beard, eyelashes, eyebrows. How lice look on the head should be known to everyone who cares about their own health. They are not adapted to affect other parts of the human body.

These creatures eat the blood of their victim, piercing the skin and letting in a special substance. In this case, a person begins to worry about severe itching. Scars usually appear at the bite sites, as a result of which a secondary infection may join.

The breeding process in these individuals is very rapid. Females in their short life (up to 40 days) manage to lay up to three thousand eggs, fixing them to the hair of their prey.

How are head lice transmitted? These creatures are not able to jump and fly. But they crawl quickly enough, moving from one person to another. At a great distance they are not transmitted, however, even with short close contact with the infected, they can easily move to the new "owner".

If you hang the affected thing in a closet and don’t put it on for a long time, then the insects will die within 3 days due to hunger.

The main food of these representatives is human blood. Living in the things of their victim, the parasites go on feeding to the skin without hair.

Both body and head lice cannot parasitize elsewhere. So, when settling on the body of their victim, the head individuals will live exclusively on the head, and the wages in things.

Pay attention to the photo: how lice are transmitted in the hair.

Pubic lice. These insects are slightly different from their previous "relatives". Their bodies are not so elongated, therefore, they are somewhat smaller in size. By motor activity, they are also significantly inferior to their counterparts. As a rule, they are firmly fixed with claws into the body of their victim, and sit longer than they move.

All these individuals have one thing in common - they are bloodsuckers. Throughout their lives, they parasitize on the human body.

None of the listed insects infects animals, so it is simply unrealistic to get infected from vertebrates. Cat lice and fleas are not transmitted to humans. But this should be discussed separately.

Are lice transmitted from animals

Insects that infect representatives of the animal kingdom are called whipworms. A separate type of parasite is aimed at parasitizing a specific victim. This means that lice beetles are not terrible for humans, and lice do not affect animals.

Many believe that lice in cats are transmitted to humans through close contact. Given all of the above, this is simply excluded - cat lice and fleas are not transmitted to humans.

Head lice infection method

Pediculosis is transmitted in the following ways:

It is worth saying that the transmission route, which involves swimming in ponds, using shared bedding, is very rare. For its successful implementation, a lot of time must pass from the moment of infection of a person and his habitat in one place, so that the parasites have constant access to food.

Ways of infection with pediculosis with close interaction:

1. In local transport during crowded hours.
2. In the premises where many people from different walks of life are: refugees, patients in hospitals and clinics, etc.
3. In DOW, boarding schools, schools.
4. With a handshake, hugs, kisses.
5. At the moment of intimacy.

If you ask how fast the insects spread, then sometimes just a touch or a handshake is enough, and the speed of reproduction of lice on a person’s head is lightning fast. These are the main reasons why lice appear in adults.

How are undersized individuals spread

Due to the fact that these creatures are not able to parasitize in the human hairline, the most optimal living conditions for them are items of clothing.

The spread of lice on the body occurs as follows:

You can catch clothes insects in the following places:

• In public transport.
• In hotels where poorly cleaned and do not monitor sanitation, as expected.
• In DOW, schools, camps.
• In dens for the homeless.
• In baths, pools.

The fight against underbody representatives of bloodsuckers should be very strict, because it is these individuals that can act as carriers of severe infections.

The method of transmission of pubic parasites

The disease caused by this group of pests is one of the diseases that are sexually transmitted. Other transmission options are allowed, but this is less likely:

The occurrence of insects in the armpits, eyelashes and on other parts of the body takes place in direct contact or an advanced stage of the disease.

The likelihood of infection is approximately the same, both among the stronger sex, and for women.

Children are also included in the category of potential risk, but due to sexual immaturity, they are rarely diagnosed with an ailment.

The transmission paths of pediculosis caused by various parasites are almost identical. It is necessary to try to prevent close interactions and not to use other people's household items, not excluding other possibilities of acquiring an unpleasant pathology.

Myths related to the appearance of lice

It is known that lice cause itching and discomfort, but the worst thing is that they suffer some serious illnesses. Previously, it was believed that pediculosis is a sign of a person’s uncleanliness and they appear only in children from adverse families.

But this is far from the case - they can appear in clean, well-groomed children, and even in those people who often visit baths, saunas or beauty salons (by the way, in such people, they just appear most often).

There is an opinion that lice are in those who are constantly nervous and constantly exposed to stress. It seems like, such people, due to their unstable psychological state, have weak immunity, which means that they are much more likely to experience various kinds of infectious diseases.

But this is more a myth than a reality. Louse is an external parasite and it has nothing to do with immunity, just like the state of the nervous system.

How to recognize lice

Before you learn how to get infected with head lice (lice) it is worth talking about the symptoms of this disease.

Lice are very small insects that feed on human blood, so they are usually concentrated in the area of ​​the scalp and lay their eggs there - nits.

A louse lives only 40 days, but during this time it can lay about 400 eggs, which after a couple of days turn into adult parasites. Nits are attached to the hair with an adhesive mass that keeps them there even while washing your hair and combing it.

How can I get infected

The answer to this question is quite simple and banal - they are transmitted from an infected person. Lice do not jump or fly - they just crawl. Basically, infection with pediculosis requires close contact with the patient, however, you will most likely never know where the lice came from and who “awarded you” them, unless, of course, this is not a person close to you.

As mentioned earlier, children are most often infected with pediculosis. They spend a lot of time in schools, kindergartens, in a word - in a team.

An adult can become infected with lice through common household items, towels, or clothes. It is also easy to catch this parasite in public transport, a hairdresser, a pool.

In any case, regardless of the method of infection with pediculosis, with the first symptoms, you must consult a doctor who will prescribe a special course of treatment.

To prevent the further development of the disease, it is necessary to conduct heat treatment of bedding, clothes, personal hygiene items. And you need to do this as soon as possible, otherwise you risk causing great harm to your body and the health of the people around you.