Combing and combating head lice

doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7513.362

BMJ 2005;331:362-363 (13 August), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7513.362

Editorial

Combing and combating head lice

Choose between four successive combings or two applicationsof pediculicide

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

You have to take your hat off to the head louse. Described inancient Egyptian and Greek medical texts, it has been a sourceof irritation and disgust for thousands of years. Today, witha search on Google yielding 699 000 hits, the mostly harmlesshead louse has developed into an apparently fearsome pest. Duringthe past 2000 years, a wide range of treatments for head louseinfestation has been proposed. Not one has worked sufficientlyfor it to be regarded as a panacea. The comparison of effectivenessof comb and pediculicide, as reported in a paper in this week'sBMJ, is certainly not new.¹

Hill et al (p 384) report this week the most complete assessmentof the non pharmacological approach "Bug Buster," testing itagainst pediculicides available over the counter in the UnitedKingdom.² This paper is particularly relevant and timely inthe northern . . . [Full text of this article]

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Martin Dawes, chair of family medicine

Department of Family Medicine, McGill University, 515 Avenue des Pins, Montreal, Quebec H2W1S4 Canada
(martin.dawes@mcgill.ca)

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