ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 13, 1997 TAG: 9704140052
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LOS ANGELES TIMES
While some blame the increase on improper use of remedies, a group of Israeli researchers has found that head lice are overpowering over-the-counter treatments.
To parents recoiling from the discovery of lice on their child's scalp - which is dismayingly common and getting more so, health officials say - the latest word from the medical front offers little comfort.
Ordinary head lice may be turning into ``super lice,'' developing immunity to over-the-counter treatments that are parents' chief weapon.
The California Department of Health Services warned in a 1996 report that there is ``circumstantial evidence'' of increased head lice resistance. This could explain why some public health officials are seeing a dramatic rise in lice outbreaks.
``I'd say we have a 20 to 30 percent increase in the number of calls in the last year,'' said Dr. Vicki Kramer of the Department of Health Services, who works with public schools and health departments on head lice.
``If the lice are harder to get rid of, people are carrying them for longer periods of time. And that increases the chance they will infest someone else.''
Neither school districts nor federal and local health officials keep statistics on head lice, regarded by medical officials as a nuisance rather than a disease.
Scientific studies on the possibility of immunity have not been completed in the United States and some health officials blame increased infestations on improper use of remedies. A group of Israeli researchers, however, says their tests have proved that head lice, which medical historians trace back 9,000 years, are overpowering over-the-counter treatments.
Some parents do not need to be convinced. ``We tried everything we were supposed to do and we still could not get rid of them,'' said Robin Fried, of Agoura Hills, Calif., whose 6-year-old-daughter was sent home from school with head lice in November.
``We tried the shampoos the school nurse told us we could find in the drugstore. We would think we got rid of all the eggs, but then we would take her back to school and they would examine her and say there were more.
``I was hysterical. I thought we would never get back in,'' said Fried.
``It happens to everyone,'' said Dr. Carol Peterson, a medical epidemiologist with the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services. ``It's an old myth that head lice is related to socioeconomic status.''
Complaints from school health workers started coming into public health offices a couple of years ago that widely used remedies - pesticides approved for scalp use - weren't working as effectively anymore.
In Israel, researchers found that head lice had developed a resistance to pyrethroids - the family of chemicals used in common remedies.
In 1986, a synthetic form, called permethrin, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for head lice treatment. It is the active ingredient in Nix, which industry officials say is the most widely used brand in the United States.
Israeli scientists blamed permethrin, in particular, for the resistance they found.
The drug industry giant Warner Lambert, which makes Nix, disputed the Israeli findings.
Some adults are so repulsed by lice they sometimes take dangerous measures.
``We still get reports of parents using kerosene,'' said Lori Nelson, a Los Angeles Unified School District nurse.
Far worse, an Oklahoma City man tried to treat a 6-year-old girl by washing her hair with Diazinon, an agricultural pesticide, police reported last month. The girl went into cardiac arrest; doctors say she may have permanent injuries.
When treatments don't work, some physicians prescribe stronger doses of permethrin, a 5 percent solution rather than the 1 percent in Nix. But if lice are becoming resistant to the weaker solution, it's likely they'll resist the stronger dose eventually as well, researchers warn.
Terri Meinking, a University of Miami researcher, said there is hope for the future.
``We are working on new treatments that will have active ingredients that are not pesticides,'' she said.
LENGTH: Medium: 81 linesby CNB