While Yoon’s research provides greater insights into the scope of the problem, doctors around the country have been aware of resistant lice populations in their areas for years the first discovery of the mutation in the United States happened in 2000, Yoon said. Lice with the mutations can still be eliminated with prescription medications, which contain a different active ingredient, and with the use of special combs, Yoon said at a press conference last month in Boston. That’s because they have a combination of genetic mutations that allow their nervous systems to withstand exposure to permethrin, the active ingredient in many head-lice treatments sold in drug stores. The infestation of super lice stories started when researchers presented findings at an August meeting of the American Chemistry Society that in at least half the states, the dreaded insects that feed on blood from the human scalp have developed resistance to over-the-counter treatments that doctors and schools frequently recommend.Īfter testing samples of lice collected by public-health workers in 30 states, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville researcher Kyong Yoon concluded that 25 states have some lice strains that are resistant to the treatments. That’s what we keep trying to get across to parents.” ‘Super Lice’ “But the evidence shows that no-nit policies are not necessary, that they keep kids out of school unnecessarily. “We always get pushback from that,” she said.
New strains of lice aren’t a reason to return to old policies, which often led to long absences for some students as their families treated the condition, said Beth Mattey, a school nurse in Wilmington, Del., and the president of the National Association of School Nurses, an organization that has advocated ending no-nit policies.
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