Dear Parents / Caregivers

We have been informed that children within our school have headlice. Headlice is present amongst children in your child’s class. These insects are a nuisance and can be controlled or eradicated by families. Headlice crawl from head to head and may be passed on through shared objects such as hairbrushes and hats. Headlice are not just a school problem but one which is shared amongst communities and other social networks. Your child may well pick up headlice from other friends and people they visit outside of school.

It is recommended that you check all members of your household carefully. Anyone can host headlice. Cleanliness is not a factor in whether headlice are present or not.

What to look for

• Small light or dark brown insects without wings.
• Tiny whitish eggs (nits) like grains of salt attached to hair shafts.  There may be unusual itching on the head or neck.
• Small red marks on the neck or behind the ears (headlice bites).

What to do

• Check all members of the household daily at the same time for at least three weeks.
• Treat anyone who is hosting headlice. Effective treatment need not be chemical or expensive.
• Please advise the school if you find headlice and confirm that treatment has begun.
• Be prepared to continue treatment for about three weeks depending on the method chosen. Three weeks is the length of the headlouse breeding cycle; you need to break the cycle or infestation will continue.
• After each treatment, comb the hair with a fine toothed comb.
• Extra precautions may include washing all bedlinen, pillowcases and towels in hot water and tumble drying for 20 minutes on high. Other items that have come in contact with heads should also be thoroughly cleaned.
• Soak hairbrushes and combs in hot water for at least ten minutes.
• Vacuuming carpets and rugs may be helpful.
• Repeat treatment 7 to 10 days after initial treatment.
• Inform other friends and contacts (outside of school) as they may well have headlice and require treatment. (Remember successful containment of headlice relies on all people you have contact with treating their children)

Treating the hair is no guarantee that the problem has been eradicated. Success is more likely if treatment is thorough, checking daily for at least three weeks and reminding children to avoid head to head contact with others and to keep their hair tied back.

What not to do

• Do not use shampoo, conditioner or a hair drier on hair within 24 hours of using a chemical treatment. Each of these can make the treatment less effective or cause it to fail.
• Do not use ordinary insecticides, pet shampoo or flammable petroleum products.
• Do not use chemical products if the person applying the treatment or the person being treated is pregnant.

Thank you for your co-operation. Please contact the school for further information and please read the attached information sheets.

Regards
Kim Blackwood Principal

Some facts about Headlice

What to look for

Headlice are small insects approximately 2 to 4 mm long and about 1mm wide. They have six legs with claws and are usually a light or dark brown colour.

Eggs (nits) are small and hard like a grain of salt and are yellow-white in colour. Eggs are usually found on the hair very close to the scalp. Those found further from the scalp than one to one and half centimetres from the scalp are probably dead or hatched.

Sometimes a person with headlice or eggs might feel itchy, but not always.

Checking for headlice or eggs

Check weekly using bright light and by parting the hair. Check the scalp, especially at the front, nape of the neck, behind the ears and at the base of a pony tail or plaits.

Small red dots behind the ears and on the nape of the neck may be headlice bites. Eggs are usually easier to see than headlice. Don’t be confused by dandruff that is flaky and easily removed. Eggs will feel sandy or gritty when fingers are run through the hair.

Transmission

Headlice crawl from head to head. Because young children are often in close proximity to one another in play, at sports (especially during rugby play) or classwork, or in close proximity to family adults at home, headlice have opportunities to move from one head to another. It is impossible to know the origin of an outbreak.

A less likely method of transmission is through the sharing of things like combs, hairbrushes, hats, and other things that touch the head and hair.

Because headlice need food, humidity and warmth to survive it is unlikely they will be found alive on car seats, curtains or carpets.

Adolescents and adults tend to spend little time in close proximity to others so transmission of headlice amongst older people is less likely than amongst the young.

Food

Blood is the food of headlice. Headlice need something to cling to and to lay their eggs on. Headlice find a head of hair a most suitable place to live.

Hosting headlice

Headlice do not cause disease. They may cause an uncomfortable itching. At worst, a child with headlice may scratch excessively and break the scalp possibly allowing infection in. An infestation of headlice should be detected and dealt with long before it becomes either highly visible or irritating.

Preventing headlice

• Avoid head to head contact.
• Don’t share brushes, combs, hats and other items that come into contact with hair.
• Discourage children from playing with each others’ hair.
• Tie long hair back or plait it.
• Brush hair regularly.
• Check the hair of everyone in the family at least once a week.
• Take action if a child is scratching unusually – check their head carefully.

Treatment

Treatment must be thorough, regular and carried out over a period of weeks by everyone. Even so, such treatment will not prevent a reinfestation originating from another community. Keeping headlice under control requires constant vigilance.

Effective treatment can be cheap. A combination of methods is likely to be most successful.

Dry combing

This method is for removal of headlice and eggs.

• Use a metal fine-toothed comb.
• Fingernails can effectively remove eggs.
• Individual strands of hair can be cut to remove difficult eggs.
• Some combs will extract adult headlice only and leave the eggs; the closer together the teeth of the comb are, the more successful combing will be.

• This method, using any kind of hair conditioner, is for detection and removal of headlice and eggs. It is recommended that this treatment be repeated on alternate days for three weeks. The idea is to smother the headlice with conditioner, preventing them moving away, and to allow manual removal. Do not use conditioner within a day of using a chemical treatment; it will make the chemical treatment ineffective.
• Apply enough conditioner (much more than usual) on dry hair to thoroughly cover the whole scalp and all the hair from the roots to the tips.
• Keep the conditioner in the hair. Conditioner stuns the insects for about 20 minutes.
• Comb the hair straight and get knots out with an ordinary comb.
• Use a fine-toothed comb to systematically comb the hair. Comb the full length of each hair.
• Wipe the comb with a clean tissue after each stroke of the comb.
• After thorough combing and inspection, wash the conditioner out.

Electric combs

Electric battery operated combs are available to be used on dry hair. These are claimed to stun or kill the headlice so they let go of the hair and can be combed out. Clean the teeth after each stroke of the comb. Electric combs should be used on alternate days for two or three weeks to break the breeding cycle.

Haircuts

Short hair is easier to comb, requires less time to treat and makes detection easier. It should not be necessary to shave heads. Hairdressers may refuse to cut infested hair.

Chemicals

The use of any chemical in or on the body carries risk. The chemicals used are insecticides and should be used with care and strictly as directed by the manufacturer. Chemicals are expensive.

There are three chemicals that are most commonly used:
Pyrethrins – derived from chrysanthemum flowers, these attack the insects’ nervous system but break down in sunlight. These are usually combined with piperonyl butoxide for more effectiveness.
Pyrethroids – synthetic pyrethrins that are more stable in sunlight.
Maldeson – an organophosphate insecticide that attacks the insects’ nervous system.

• Apply the treatment strictly in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions.
• Treat those members of the household who appear to be hosting headlice. Do not treat babies with chemicals.
• Do not wash the hair or use conditioners for at least 24 hours after treating. Treatments are designed to coat the hair shaft and should be allowed to remain. Do not wash chemicals off.
• Do not use hairdryers on treated hair. The heat may break down the active chemical.
• Comb the hair carefully to remove as many dead or live headlice and eggs as possible.
• Repeat the treatment after seven to ten days.
• Check all members of the household daily for a period of three weeks.

Herbal remedies

Several herbal preparations are available, however the effectiveness of these is not clearly established. Most herbal remedies might be regarded as expensive conditioners that are no more effective than other conditioners. Some, such as tea tree oil, may be, volume for volume, more toxic to humans than chemical preparations. Olive oil, hair gel and mayonnaise may make combing easier.

What else can help?

Extra precautions may include washing all bedlinen and certainly pillowcases and towels in hot water (at least 60 degrees centigrade) and tumble drying for 20 minutes on high. Other items that have come in contact with heads should also be thoroughly cleaned. Soak hairbrushes and combs in hot water for at least ten minutes. Tie hair back.