Dermatológia pre prax 4/2010

Head louse remains a problem

Head louse (Pediculus capitis) infestation is a parasitic disease referred to as pediculosis. In recent years, its incidence has been increasing significantly in all developed countries including the Czech Republic. This is considered to be due to resistance to anti-louse preparations. In the Czech Republic, head louse resistance to permethrin was demonstrated as early as in 1992 and that to malathion in 2004, these two being the most commonly used anti-louse insecticides worldwide. The anti-louse preparations, which contained the above mentioned substances and were the only ones available in the market in the Czech Republic at that time, had ceased to be effective due to resistance, which resulted in a markedly increased incidence of pediculosis. Currently, two anti-louse medications (a hair tonic and an insecticide shampoo) are approved within a specific therapeutic programme, one of which contains carbaryl (Diffusil H Forte hair tonic) and the other contains d-phenothrin (Parasidose Shampooing insecticide shampoo).

Keywords: head louse, Pediculus capitis, taxonomy, incidence, delousing