Large-scale survey recommends more frequent lice inspections

A  large-scale survey of household lice inspection in Norway has found that nearly half of households inspect for head lice either biannually or not at all.

The article, by Rukke et al., published in PlosONE last week, questioned over 6000 households in Norway. They found that while 5% of households made monthly head line inspections, 40% of households checked only during biannual campaigns.

Over 90% of households reported using pediculicides to treat lice, with over three-quarters of these using them in conjunction with a lice comb. Around 8% of households used pediculicides as a preventative measure.

The authors also discuss the relative amount of knowledge regarding head lice and their treatment among households. They strongly recommend increasing the inspection frequency as the best method of decreasing lice infestation occurrence.