I finished typing that headline and a second later my head began to itch uncontrollably. It doesn’t help that I’m living in one of the states with the most cases of super lice.
Lice — and other insects — are increasingly becoming resistant to pyrethroids, the active ingredients in most OTC concoctions, according to Kyong Yoon, an assistant professor at Southern Illinois University—Edwardsvillle. Yoon was part of the research team that initially discovered the new ultra-resistant strains, publishing their results in August, 2015.
Yoon and his colleagues wanted to know how widespread these resistant strains were.
And RIGHT THERE is where shit went off the rails. As soon as data is gathered, panic ensues. Yoon and his staff collected 109 lice populations and 104 had high levels of gene mutations among all the states and the information collected helped to create this handy map.
Red states: 100 percent of the tested lice were resistant.
Orange states: 50 to 90 percent of lice were resistant.
Yellow states: 1 percent to 49 percent were resistant.
Blue states: Data hasn’t been analyzed yet.
White states haven’t been tested.
My state? Freaking the hell out! I live in an orange state and have two kids in school who spend the day with some incredibly gross little children. Looks like we’re all shaving our heads tonight. That has nothing to do with lice it’s just time.
Nothing is working on these little buggers, not even the usually infallible mayo! — “Olive oil, mayonnaise, Vaseline, these are all treatments I wouldn’t recommend,” Pediatric dermatologist Dr. Robin Gehris told Today. “But I hear school nurses recommending them all the time.”
If your school nurse is recommend condiments for lice removal it’s time to transfer your children to a different school. Maybe even move to a different state. A state with a nice shade of yellow.
[via Today]