About pubic lice and their treatment with modern drugs

Pubic lice, they are also flatheads, are a completely independent species of insects that have a number of significant differences from head lice. However, the biology of both these species also have much in common, so often drugs for the treatment of pubic lice can be used to combat head lice, and vice versa.

However, the treatment for pubic lice has some specifics:

• pubic lice, in addition to the actual hairline near the genitals, can also infect other parts of the body, sometimes quite unexpected - eyebrows, eyelashes, armpit hair;
• pubic lice are less resistant to starvation and negative environmental factors (compared to head "relatives");
• pubic louse causes the same symptoms of pediculosis (popularly - lice) as the head louse, but due to localization features, infection with these parasites is considered a venereal disease, which is associated with certain ethical and psychological problems in those infected.

Ploshchitsy are not able to leave the body of the owner, are inactive and strongly attached to the hairline. This simplifies the treatment of pubic pediculosis.

On the other hand, pubic lice, like head lice, lay eggs called nits, which are very resistant to low and high temperatures, many insecticidal agents, as well as to mechanical stress. This makes the removal of pubic lice a rather laborious process. Therefore, the treatment of pubic pediculosis at home can often be stretched for a long time, especially with a lack of information about effective approaches to solving the problem.

It is interesting

The main features of the biology of pubic lice have been known to people since antiquity. For example, in ancient Rome it was known that pubic lice could be treated with a decoction of tansy; at the same time, hellebore water was also used to treat lice at home. It was also known that lice can only live on areas of the body covered with hair. Accordingly, the complete shaving of hair during many wars was the main method of removing lice.

 

Ways to get rid of pubic lice

Treatment methods for pubic lice can be divided into two groups:

• chemical, in which lice are affected by strong insecticidal preparations
• mechanical, in which lice are disposed of by shaving off the hair
• and, finally, folk methods of treatment.

Of these methods, it is chemical that is most popular today - when parasites are first detected, their owner immediately tries to find some kind of cream or ointment for pubic lice. The same funds are most often recommended in pharmacies and clinics.

The advantages of the chemical method are the speed and simplicity of the treatment procedure: a good remedy for pubic lice allows you to destroy parasites in one treatment for about 1 hour.The main disadvantage of using insecticidal drugs in the treatment of pubic lice is associated with the risk of all kinds of side effects, from allergies to human poisoning.

Review

“Once I had this muck when I was still swimming and somewhere, either in South Africa or in Namibia, I picked up pubic lice. You don’t feel them right away, but they begin to torment after a couple of months. I had already returned home by then. This, of course, is terrible: neither to go to a club for a walk, nor to chat with a girl. Plus, my next contract was still brewing, and they could have noticed at the medical board. And in general, walking like this around the city and scratching yourself is not very beautiful. And you can't pick them out with your hands. Then I bought a can of Paranit. First, according to the instructions, I sprayed it, then repeated it three times, in a day or two. Good thing, it helped me. Within a week there were no insects. He passed the medical examination, and then he just shaved off everything and forgot about this matter.

Dmitry, Petrozavodsk

Getting rid of pubic lice mechanically is possible only by completely shaving off the hair infected with lice. The use of special combs for combing out lice and nits in such cases is much less effective than when removing head lice.

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As for the complete removal of lice-infested hair, it is fast, cheap, safe, and in the absence of parasites in other parts of the case, it is very effective. For prevention, hair should be shaved for several months, after which the lice are guaranteed to disappear.

However, if eyebrows and eyelashes are infected with pubic lice, then it is more expedient to turn to special pediculicidal preparations.

 

Insecticides to combat pubic lice

Insecticide-based remedies for pubic lice are quite numerous and are distinguished by a wide variety of forms of release. The principle of operation of many of them is to disrupt the normal functioning of the nervous system of the parasite, as a result of which the pubic louse dies from paralysis.

There are also drugs whose action is based on enveloping the lice with a thin airtight film, which leads to suffocation of the insect.

On a note

Most insecticides used in lice remedies are relatively safe for humans - in the body of all warm-blooded animals, these substances are easily broken down into harmless compounds. However, many insecticides are quite capable of causing an allergic reaction.

There is another type of funds, for example, based on Dimethicone. This substance (liquid silicone) clogs the airways of the lice and causes suffocation. For humans, Dimethicone is completely safe, and for some diseases it is even prescribed for oral administration.

The following are the main forms of release and the names of some means to combat pubic lice:

• Creams and ointments - Nittifor, Nix. Quite laborious to apply, but give a good result. Benzyl benzoate is also good - an ointment designed to combat scabies, but no less effective in destroying lice (after applying to the hair, lice die within 3-4 hours, but this remedy does not work on eggs).
• Lice shampoos are easy to use and quite effective. The most famous are Parasidosis, Pedilin, LiceGuard.
• Sprays - in addition to insecticides, Dimethicone is often used in them (for example, in Nyuda and Paranit sprays).
• Emulsion concentrates for dilution are perhaps the most effective, but also the most dangerous if used incorrectly (Medifox, Medilis, Avicin).

Before being treated for pubic lice, it is useful to first carefully understand the contraindications of the respective drugs and only then choose how to remove the parasites. For example, Pedilin pubic lice shampoos and ParaPlus aerosol can give a good result (they contain malathion, which destroys not only adult lice, but also nits), but these drugs are not suitable for everyone and not for every age.

Important!

For each lice remedy, there is a restriction on the minimum age of the child from which this remedy can be used. Read the instructions carefully!

 

Folk remedies for pubic lice

Folk remedies for pubic lice can be conditionally divided into two types: really effective and simply repellent. The action of the former resembles the effect of synthetic insecticides, while the latter simply have a specific smell that creates uncomfortable living conditions for lice.

And further: Creepy photos of head lice, including macro photography (the article has more than 50 comments)

Obviously, since lice cannot leave the hair on the host's body, it is generally pointless to scare them away: they will not run anywhere anyway (unless new lice crawl onto the body). Therefore, various essential oils, as well as birch tar, are not suitable for the treatment of pubic lice.

Effective folk remedies for pubic lice are kerosene, denatured alcohol, vinegar, hydrogen peroxide, dust soap, hellebore water, tansy decoction, and, to a lesser extent, sulfuric ointment. Many of them are significantly inferior to insecticidal preparations in terms of safety of use. So, kerosene, vinegar, industrial alcohol and hydrogen peroxide have such a strong effect on human skin that they can easily lead to burns. And dust soap contains DDT, one of the most dangerous insecticides for humans, which can stimulate the development of cancerous tumors and genetic mutations.

Review

“I do not advise anyone to poison pubic lice with denatured alcohol. So in the village in my youth I picked up this infection in student practice. So the local grandfather recommended me to smear everything with alcohol and sit. It is such a pain that it is better to endure lice. It's like everything is being burned with acid. The lice, of course, all burned out, the hair became white, like gray. But today, probably, there are a lot of funds that can replace such old-fashioned methods.

Roller, Mytishchi

From folk remedies, it is worth paying attention to cranberry juice and hellebore water - these substances do not cause side effects, but they are more or less effective in killing lice and softening the shells of nits.

As a rule, in most cases, treatment for pubic lice occurs at home. At the same time, many people think that the longer each remedy is on the hair, the less chance the lice have to survive.

This is true, however, on the other hand, long-term exposure to the drug can lead to various side effects.Therefore, for safety reasons, each drug should be used in strict accordance with the instructions, but with severe signs of irritation, stop the procedure and wash off the drug before the end of the recommended exposure time. In extreme cases, the treatment can be repeated after a few days or you can buy another remedy.

And finally: the pubic louse is rapidly disappearing today. The reason for this is the craze for the most open swimsuits and total shaving of intimate areas. Parasites simply remain without their usual habitats. Therefore, if you don’t want to mess with insecticidal agents, you can always make yourself a bikini haircut, and lice will disappear along with your hair.

 

What every civilized person needs to know about lice

 

Useful video: how to deal with pubic lice

 

And this is what a pubic louse actually looks like on a person’s eyelashes