CDC Changes Lice Guidelines: Students With Nits Do Not Need to be Sent Home
The CDC says that the nit-specific focus isn’t effective and is burdensome. Meanwhile, in the post-covid era, some are skeptical of the new recommendations.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have issued some head-scratching guidelines and recommendations over the past few years.
Their latest recommendation focuses on updating policies related to head lice among America’s students.
As students head back to school, many parents might not be aware of the latest lice policies issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC has recently updated its guidelines on how schools and families should handle head lice infestations. One significant change is that students with head lice no longer need to be sent home early from school. Students are now allowed to finish the school day, receive a home lice treatment and return to class as soon as the following morning.
When it comes to the “no-nit” policies of the past the health organization along with the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Association of School Nurses advocate for discontinuing children to be completely free of nits before returning to school.
As any parent will tell you, dealing with head lice is challenging. My son never had an infestation, though he was sent home from pre-school several times because the teacher couldn’t distinguish a nit (i.e., louse egg) from a grain of sand. His young friend had several mayonnaise hair treatments, which were unpleasant.
According to medical professionals, the recommendations are sensible.
That approach makes sense, according to Dr. Dawn Nolt, a pediatrician at Oregon Health & Science University Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland, Oregon.
“It takes about four to six weeks for someone to really show and start itching from head lice. And so, you know, once it’s detected, it’s probably really been there for about a month,” Nolt told NPR’s Morning Edition.
Having lice in your hair just isn’t that urgent of a condition, she said.
“It doesn’t carry any additional diseases. It’s just really a nuisance,” she added. “So we encourage that kids stay in school at least through the end of the day, and send a note or a call to the family to start treatment as soon as they can.”
The CDC says that the nit-specific focus on dealing with lice isn’t effective and is burdensome.
• Many nits are more than a quarter-inch from the scalp, making them unlikely to hatch or become crawling lice.
• Nits bond to hair shafts and are unlikely to transfer to others.
• The burden of missing school days due to nits far outweighs the minimal risk of transmission, especially when the lice have been treated.
• When performed by non-medical professionals, misdiagnosis of nits is common.
Now, all of this may be true. But in this post-covid era, people are….skeptical.
CDC has literally okayed sending kids to school with lice. They want you back at work so bad they're gonna let everyone get lice.
cute.
— Jolenta Greenberg (@jolenta_) August 19, 2024
Is our government becoming insane? Does someone at the CDC have stock in lice shampoo? https://t.co/BtAVFQxrue
— Steve Mustanski (@SteveMustanski) September 7, 2024
Say, did you hear the latest? The CDC now says no longer should kids be sent home for lice, it’s lice for one lice for all! Lice is nice!! Every child will now have a heaping scoop of lice along with measles, you know the disease we eradicated in the US. Thanks @VP #VOTETRUMP
— Kimberly (@Kimberwomanmom) September 3, 2024
Louse-transmitted diseases are presently not a serious threat in this country, yet. In other parts of the world, however, lice do transmit typhus fever (a disease which has killed and which there have been reported cases associated with homeless camps), epidemic relapsing fever, and trench fever.
For more on human lice, here is a fun video:
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Comments
They’re turning us into a 3rd-world country so of course, we have to learn how to accept the routine 3rd-world pestilences.
I am doubtful that nits would be detected if there were not also adults running around the student’s hair. Any lice of any age is enough to justify moving the child away from others as per longstanding procedure.
Or is the CDC sticking to “Quarantine the healthy”?
Let me guess—it’s an “equity” thing. What’s the demographic breakdown of kids sent home with lice?
That was the first thing that came to my mind also… we can’t have anybody get their feelings hurt. Equal outcomes for all, even if that means everybody gets bugs in their hair.
Next year, instead of sending them home or keeping them in class, they will be sent directly to the cafeteria to be harvested for the next days lunch. Can’t eat the bugs if you don’t got the bugs to serve the kids.
Oh, c’mon, Henry! You think they’re going to be able to cook such itty-bitty critters in the school cafeteria? Pfft. They’ll have to be sent to a central processing facility.
/maybe sarc
“Centers for Disease Control and Prevention” = CDC, not CDCP? Hmm… CDCP sounds a bit too Soviet-era?
No truth in advertising anymore
Mission creep.
They added the Prevention. Like BATF added the Explosives.
(TSA just tried to argue that the T included boats and trains.)
The CDC has proven itself to be primarily politically-driven. When they abruptly change the last 60 years of practice, it should be presumptively regarded as political BS. It’s another federal agency with tons of unelected, unaccountable, woke experts with too much authority.
Make Cholera Great Again
Love the slogan.
Back in my day, if any of us kids had lice we were given a chlorpyrifos treatment and told to go do our chores. It killed the lice dead and never had any effect on us effect on us effect on us. What was the subject again? 🤷♂️
Twould certainly ID ones to be deported
Great.
These guys make it sound practically impossible to transmit head lice.
That is about as stupid as it gets.
And the darned things are very difficult to get rid of.
My Daughters were going to a private Christian school that started taking in ” Immigrants ” and suddenly, half the kids wound up with lice.
I spent HUNDREDS on lice killing stuff.
Finally, the lice were done in with Ivermectin treatment. And in short order.
But, the CDC seems to think we should just accept head lice in school as it is easier to lower our hygiene standards than address the problems in a reasonable and responsible manner.
I had to go look it up. Yes, Ivermectin is a safe and effective lice treatment, also. Wonder how soon the Greenies are going to try to ban it also.
Oral ivermectin?
Probably topical.
Reason 2397 to homeschool your children.
Yuck! They’re a little more than a nuisance. Great we’ll all be dressed in potato sacks soon having to go down to the polluted river to get our water.
My son And daughter had head lice
It was a nightmare to get rid of
All their toys, especially stuffed animals had to be washed and bagged for weeks, put in freezer if you had room, Al bedding in the house vacuuming over and over
The hair medication was extremely strong and the chemicals unhealthy for a child’s growing body
Then the “nit picking”
My daughter had very long hair..
It’s what nightmares are made of
And I went ballistic with the grade school , my daughter was in first grade and they put her outside, alone , to wait for me to pick her up.
Now lucky I was 1/2 block away
But clearly this was dangerous
Complete assholes
My dad was part of the liberating troops at Dachau. He said that in order to exit the camp, everyone had to de-louse using DDT powder. Nasty little critters.
Have a female friend that went to boarding school in India. All girls.
She said every Saturday AM, they would have a head inspections. No lice or nits–you got to go to the Saturday PM movie.
Exactly how that was lice control, I am not sure.
If your mama combed your hair properly, you got to go to the movie. Seems like a decent incentive to me.
The other kids mysteriously disappeared while the privileged group was watching the movie.
This confirms what I have always suspected that the CDC is staffed by a lot of nitwits.
His young friend had several mayonnaise hair treatments, which were unpleasant.
Does it have to be mayo? Or can it be “salad dressing”, like Miracle Whip?
I’d hate to have to buy either since I can’t stand it as a food product.
In other parts of the world, however
And this is why they’re doing this. It’s a pre-emptive measure to not have to send home all the little dears from places where this is endemic.
It’s not a huge deal, but it is lowering the health standards so we can accommodate all the illegal invaders. It’s the Harry Bergeron-ization of school health.
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