RESEARCH ARTICLE
Recommendation for a Simple, Office–Friendly, Standardized Testing for Head Lice
Craig G. Burkhart *, 1, Craig N. Burkhart2
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2009Volume: 3
First Page: 9
Last Page: 10
Publisher ID: TODJ-3-9
DOI: 10.2174/1874372200903010009
Article History:
Received Date: 3/11/2008Revision Received Date: 17/12/2008
Acceptance Date: 18/12/2008
Electronic publication date: 21/1/2009
Collection year: 2009
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Given the number of anecdotal and market-driven reported studies on head lice and also the growing resistance to many present insecticides, standardized, inexpensive testing of topical lice therapies should be formalized. Such tests could then be performed by all individuals interested in epidemiology and treatment outcomes with this disease. A simple in vitro office test that requires no high tech services or expensive equipment is presented which has been already helpful to document effectiveness or recalcitrance to specific therapies. In the protocol, head lice are exposed to insecticides for similar durations and concentrations as the product dictates; thus, exposure imitates routine clinical usage of the specific product tested. The results of such testing mirrors actual treatment results much better than elaborate pediculicidal tests performed at certain laboratories.
