(LOOTPRESS) – As students return to classrooms this fall, some parents are raising concerns about more than homework and playground stories.
Health experts warn that children may also bring home head lice, a common nuisance among school-aged kids.
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Head lice are tiny parasitic insects about the size of a sesame seed that feed on human blood and typically live on the scalp, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
While not limited to schools, lice infestations are most common among preschool and elementary-age children. The CDC estimates that up to 12 million infestations occur each year in children ages 3 to 11 in the United States.
Lice cannot hop, jump or fly. Instead, they spread most often through direct head-to-head contact with someone who is already infested.
Experts stress that personal hygiene and household cleanliness are not factors in contracting lice.
Once on a host, adult lice can survive for about 30 days, but die within two days if they fall off and cannot feed. Their eggs, called nits, take about nine days to hatch and a week to reach maturity.
The CDC recommends several steps to help prevent the spread of lice.
These include avoiding head-to-head contact during activities such as sports, sleepovers and camp; not sharing hats, scarves, hair accessories, towels or combs; and machine-washing clothing and bedding used by an infested person on high heat.
Items that cannot be washed can be sealed in a bag for two weeks. Vacuuming furniture and floors may also help, though the CDC says extensive cleaning is not necessary.
Treatment options vary and may involve over-the-counter or prescription medications, as well as manual removal of lice and nits by specialists. Factors such as the child’s age, cost and severity of infestation influence the best approach.
Students with lice do not need to be sent home from school immediately, according to the CDC. They may remain in class until the end of the day and return after treatment has begun.
While effective treatments kill crawling lice, nits may still be visible even after successful removal.
