Epidemiology of Pediculosis capitis in elementary schools of Buenos Aires, Argentina

TOLOZA, A., VASSENA, C., GALLARDO, A., GONZALEZ AUDINO, P. PICOLLO, MI

PARASITOLOGY RESEARCH

Springer-Verlag

Año: 2009 vol. 104 p. 1295 - 1298

0932-0113

Abstract The infestation with the human obligate ectoparasitePediculus humanus capitis De Geer is a commonpublic health problem affecting mainly schoolchildrenworldwide. The aim of the present study was to investigatethe infestation levels of head lice in elementary schoolsfrom Buenos Aires with resistant levels to permethrin >100.A total of 1,856 children aged 3–13 years old from eightselected elementary schools were examined for head lice.Pediculosis was observed in all the studied schools. Theoverall infestation rate was 29.7%. Girls were statisticallysignificant more infested than boys, with infestation ratevalues of 36.1% and 26.7%, respectively (P<0.0001). Only42 of the infested girls (12%) and 23 of the infested boys(11.4%) had >10 lice on their hair. The proportions ofinfested children—both girls and boys—in each age groupwere not found to differ significantly from one another. Theinfestation rate among schools varied from 19.12% to42.74%. This indicated that pediculosis is relativelycommon in elementary schools from Buenos Aires, andthose levels are of epidemic importance. The differences ofpediculosis among the studied schools could be explainedby the different control strategies applied by parents oradvisors to eradicate head lice.