September: National Health Lice Prevention Month

The National Pediculosis Association (NPA) recently launched a month-long campaign to spread awareness regarding the treatment of head lice. It focuses on confronting the conflicting guidelines and misinformation that are disseminated among people regarding head lice and their treatment. Let’s take a look at what the campaign entails and what some of its focal points are.

What is the campaign about?

The purpose of the campaign is to spread awareness among parents about the importance of routine screening for head lice, early detection, public health measures, and seeking treatment so schools remain nit and lice-free. The educational campaign has been issued in response to outdated instructions that were released by the FDA regarding lice. The statements by the FDA overlook new advances that have been made in combing tools and other methods that can get rid of lice. The guidelines also fail to mention the decreasing effectiveness of over-the-counter products. The campaign believes that parents of young children can no longer rely on FDA guidelines to successfully end early head lice infestations and ensure the safety of their children.

What does the campaign suggest?

safe and healthy environment for children

According to the NPA, the first step toward creating a safe and healthy environment for children is for parents to acknowledge that head lice area public health problem. This will allow parents to work as a community to ensure that successful control measures are taken for the safety of all against head lice. The NPA wants to reach out to parents to inform them about effective diagnosis and treatment methods. They request the FDA to make practical and realistic methods available to parents so head lice outbreaks in school can be minimized. Additionally, the campaign suggests that parents begin lice screening at home so that children can be kept away from harsh chemical treatments that are still being used in schools, despite their inefficacies.

What should parents do?

Instead of making use of ineffective over-the-counter treatments, parents should inspect lice themselves by visual inspection and wet combing. These two methods can correctly identify lice infestations by 95%. Other than that, a more efficient method is to seek the help of professional lice removal services that will use thorough methods to screen your children’s hair for lice, and then treat any signs of an infestation. If you’re looking for a head lice screening and treatment center in New York, head over to Lice Troopers’ head lice removal salon and get rid of lice! Contact us at 800-403-5423 today!