CNN: Mutant Lice are Probably Coming

According to a recent report from CNN, newer generation lice-fighting chemicals are an option if the usual treatments fail, but they are often more expensive. A number of parents are taking their children to "nitpickers," who manually remove the insects from hair using combs and sometimes just their fingers.

 

Reports of lice resistance started appearing in the mid-1990s in the United States, Europe and Australia. A 2014 study suggested the potential for resistance is high in several areas in the United States and Canada. Among lice samples from 84 people in these countries, 99.6 percent of the insects had mutations in genes that could allow them to survive the insecticides permethrin and pyrethrin, which are the active ingredients in over-the-counter remedies. In the past, this group's research has received financial support from pharmaceutical companies that make such prescription medicine.

 

Read more here: http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/18/health/mutant-lice/index.html.