Study finds Connecticut lice resistant to some treatments, officials say still … – Torrington Register Citizen

MILFORD >> Get ready to say “ewww.”

As students and families across Greater New Haven prepare for the start of school, new research was released showing some types of head lice in Connecticut have developed genes to resist over-the-counter treatments.

The study said that development could potentially make the lice harder to eradicate if passed between students sharing hats or having close contact with friends.

But state and New Haven-area health officials said lice has not been a major concern here and there are ways of dealing with the more treatment-resistant lice even if they do appear in Greater New Haven schools.

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Milford Health Department Director Deepa Joseph said lice are something the city’s school nurses watch for but she said it isn’t one of the top health issues facing the district.

“We have a proactive protocol,” she said. “We kind of go up the levels as we need to. We have not seen anything that’s abnormal from what we typically see.”

Joseph said the district used to do head checks of classes to look for lice but now helps students individually if a teacher refers them for treatment or if a parent identifies a problem.

She said the first line of defense for students who are found to have lice is to recommend the student’s family try the over-the-counter treatments.

“If those don’t work and there’s still an infestation, we would go to the next level and recommend they go to their doctor” to ask about a prescription for stronger treatments.

Joseph said the Health Department also works with families to identify the source of lice cases. She said that includes treating the child who has lice but also looking at their environment and have the family vacuum the home, wash items in hot water and place items that can’t be washed in plastic bags.

Doing that environmental piece is as important as the shampoo treatments, according to Joseph.

“Sometimes missing a step is what prevents students from getting rid of it,” she said.

Donna Kosiorowski, the nursing supervisor for West Haven schools, said the district won’t be changing its policy in light of the new study because it is a single study that has not yet been duplicated.

Kosiorowski said that district also works with families of children who have lice to treat the child and make sure the home is cleaned.

She said the district sends home a letter to parents at the beginning of the school year with information about head lice. And if a child is found to have lice, she said the district’s nurses recommend known treatments and not home remedies.

“We advise them to use the over-the-counter products we’re familiar with and we always advise them to talk to their pediatrician,” she said.

Kosiorowski said the district tries to minimize the absences of children with lice because she said an extended absence isn’t necessary if they are found.

The recent study, done by a group of researchers in Illinois, looked at lice samples from 30 different states.

Treatment resistance genes were found in lice from 25 of those states, including Connecticut, where lice were found to contain three types of genes that survive the over-the-counter treatments.

Kyong Yoon, the leader of the research group, said the Connecticut samples were taken from one population in Weston. That entire population had genes that would resist over-the-counter treatments, he said.

Yoon said the study looked at 109 populations of lice from around the country and that 104 of those populations were found to have resistance genes.

“That’s kind of alarming,” he said. “It’s almost saturated.”

He said prescription treatments might work on lice with the resistant genes found in the study, however, some day those might not work either.

“Insects, not just head lice, can develop resistance to any type of chemical if you overuse it or misuse it,” said Yoon, who is an assistant professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

He said most over-the-counter treatments use the same chemical compound to treat the lice. He said if lice treatments used different types of chemical compounds, lice would have a harder time developing resistance to them.

Yoon said lice are not known to carry disease but are instead a nuisance. The state Department of Public Health does not do statewide lice surveillance or prevention programs.

However, the agency does have a fact sheet on its website about head lice, including instructions for how to get rid of them.

Randall Nelson, senior epidemiologist for the Connecticut Department of Public Health, said that head lice are a important quality-of-life issue but he said they do not pose an infectious disease concern as do other pests, such as mosquitoes and ticks.

He said lice have short reproductive cycles, which allows their genes to change quickly.

“When you have animals like that, they will adapt and develop resistance quickly,” said Nelson, who is also the state public health veterinarian.

He also said the recent study is significant because it shows the scope of the resistance to certain over-the counter treatments but he said that resistance has been known for a long time.

Another way to effectively get rid of resistant lice is to remove them manually with a lice comb, said Gale Ridge, an assistant agricultural scientist with the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station’s Department of Entomology in New Haven.

That technique requires time and patience but if done correctly it is effective, she said.

“Combing is by far the best and safest approach to lice management,” she said.

Ridge said the station isn’t doing research on lice, instead focusing on mosquitoes, ticks (which both can transmit diseases) and bedbugs. But she said she’s collaborated with lice experts in the course of her bedbug research.

She said girls are more likely to have problems with lice than boys but that’s not because lice are choosing to infest girls over boys. Rather, it’s because in American culture, girls are more likely to touch head-to-head than boys are.

“It’s a result of our behavior, not selectivity by the louse itself,” she said.

Both Yoon and Ridge said scientists have known lice were resistant to some chemical compounds. But Ridge said the study shows how widespread it is.

“It’s not surprising,” she said. “It’s been common knowledge for quite some time. I think the significance of the study is the scope of it.”