Under-reported pediculosis papers in 2014

Like the subjects of their study, coverage of academic discussions of pediculosis treatment is often incomplete. Here are three such articles from 2014 which required a second round of treatment to get hold of:

Pediculosis in Evidence-Based Dermatology

The third edition of Evidence-Based Dermatology, edited by Williams, et al. and published by John Wiley & Sons in June 2014, contains a revised chapter by Burgess & Casey on the treatment of head lice.

The chapter is a general review of the etiology of head lice and contains broad coverage of the benefits of different forms of treatment.

Egg-hatching times measured

A paper by Burgess was published in the June 2014 edition of Medical and Veterinary Entomology, giving a high-level review of the data from twenty clinical trials on how long lice eggs take to hatch.

The review found that greater than 1% of lice eggs were found to hatch at thirteen days or more after first treatment (before which it was assumed that eggs had been killed). The study therefore recommends a revised treatment regime of three doses at weekly intervals, in order to better manage this small number of late-hatching eggs.

Reviewing popular discussion of pediculosis treatments

A paper by Hine published in the July 2014 edition of the Public Understanding of Science discusses the way in which members of the public deploy scientific knowledge in discussing optimal treatments for head lice.

Focussing on interactions in online forums, the author examines how parents justify their treatment choices based on the information they have available to them.